contactName WinterSoldier
by BlackDragon733
Summary: FBI Agent Steve Rogers is good at what he does, uncovering scams and national security issues, but when he comes up against the mysterious Hydra he finds he's hit a dead end. Now the only person who seems able to help is the last person Steve would ever see himself working with. (Eventual Steve/Bucky)(Temporary hiatus while i'm away on fieldwork. Back in a jiffy)
1. Chapter 1

Steve pored over the files he'd collected in his office for the umpteenth time and huffed a sigh. This case wasn't making sense and he had combed the few statements they had taken and any files relating to the mysterious Hydra company they had on record for any clue or link he might have missed.

It turned out there wasn't much on Hydra at all, little more than a file on the date it was started and its founder and a couple of times it was listed as a donor to some larger companies. If it weren't for the anonymous tip they had found connecting the company to some shady dealings, the files would likely never have seen the light of day.

Finally, with a hand frustratedly running through his hair, Steve looked at the clock on the corner of the desk and dropped the pen he had been flicking distractedly. It was nearly 11pm. Hadn't it only been an hour or so since he'd waved a couple of cleaners out the office and told them he would lock up this floor?

He shuffled the papers into a rough pile, aware now of the complete silence in the building around him and planning which takeout he could pick up on his way home for yet another late dinner. His mobile rang and he jumped at the intrusive ringtone. Natasha's name was blinking on the screen.

"Rogers, I called you at home."

"Hey Nat, I got caught up with some…"

"Yeah, I know what you're doing. I was called to tell you there's something going on in the case and they need you to make a call on it."

Steve raised his eyebrows curiously but said nothing, hoping she would elaborate soon.

"So, if you can just come on upstairs." She said knowingly and Steve sighed. She knew him too well sometimes.

"Yeah, I'll be there in two minutes." He said wearily and hung up. She would be getting too much enjoyment out of knowing something before him and he wouldn't admit defeat by wheedling her for details. Not that it would work, she was the best interrogator in the FBI and, unfortunately for Steve, that meant she knew all the tricks of a good ploy for information.

So he made the papers into a neat pile, placed them at the edge of his desk and set off for the Head of their Department's office, 3 floors above where Steve worked in the FBI offices of New York.

He opened the door into his boss' office and quickly took stock of the people gathered there – Director Fury obviously, Natasha, field agent like himself and their resident computer whiz helping them on the case, Darcy Lewis. Darcy's ever present cap was perched on her head, completing the outfit completely at odds with the smart officewear everyone else in the room was wearing. He still had no idea why Fury would need his opinion to make a decision.

"Agent Rogers, glad you could make it…so quickly." Director Fury said and Steve caught the glint of humour in Natasha's eye. Apparently everyone knew exactly where he'd been. "Do you have any new information for us?"

"I'm afraid not, Sir. Unfortunately none of the paper files are showing any links we didn't know about and certainly none referring to any scams." He laid particular emphasis on the phrase paper files and looked over at Darcy, concluding that her presence meant she must have made some advancement in the case.

"I see. Perhaps your next move is to cross reference the company with the weapons files." Fury said nonchalantly and so managing to catch Steve off guard.

"Weapons, Sir?" He began but Fury gave him a look to cut him off. Then the Director turned his head towards Darcy, indicating it was her turn to speak now.

"Right, yeah, so I've been trying to find any of their systems and it turns out even that's hard to do. But I caught onto a little strand and I followed that and it took me ages but I think I have a lead. Maybe." She said, typically long winded. "I found another computer trying to get into their systems. Well actually they got on the systems, I couldn't follow them. What I mean is, this person's good. They know things I can't even figure out and…" She glanced nervously at Fury and then at Steve.

"And what…?" Steve prompted impatiently, at the same time getting an uneasy feeling that he knew where this was going.

"And we found out who he was and we want to contact him about helping us." Natasha said bluntly, meeting Steve's eyes as his face dropped into a frown.

"No." Steve said immediately

"Steve…" Natasha put a placating hand on his arm and he pulled away.

"No! Not in a million years. I'm not working with a hacker and we are not getting one in on a federal investigation. It's insane."

Natasha stepped forward again to place her hand on him. "Steve, the last, vague statement we managed to get from someone was 3 weeks ago. You've been sat in your office until midnight every night for the last 2 and a half." She quelled his contradictory argument with a glare and spoke over him. "We need to try something else."

"Then try something else. But not that. It goes against everything we stand for."

"We have tried everything else. We just don't have enough information to move forwards any other way." Fury said.

Darcy piped up from her seat at the computer "So, why are you so against this?"

"It's a long story." Natasha and Steve spoke in unison; Darcy raised both her hands in surrender and made a face at Director Fury.

"Steve, we've done what we can and our best isn't enough without help." Natasha said.

"Oh, no offense taken" Darcy interjected.

"Sorry," Natasha apologised, looking slightly confused and under other circumstances Steve might have laughed at her inability to deal with the always cheerful computer tech.

"No but really, I'll readily admit he is ten times better at hacking systems than me. That's what he does." Steve gave Darcy an unhappy look at that but conceded that their arguments were strong with a slight slump of his shoulders. They hadn't made any progress at all in weeks.

"So, who is this guy?" He asked, almost ready to admit defeat until he saw the look exchanged between Fury and Natasha. He regained his defensive posture as Natasha stepped closer to him again, hooking her arm around his. It was Fury that spoke.

"James Barnes."

"Is this a sick joke?" He looked between the serious and slightly apologetic expressions on both Director Fury's and Natasha's faces, then the blatantly confused look on Darcy's. "James Buchanan Barnes?"

Fury didn't quite meet the righteous fury in Steve's eyes as he said "You see that our situation is dire. We wouldn't even suggest it if we hadn't hit every brick wall."

"Do you know how long I spent trying to make sure that scumbag was taken down?" He ignored Darcy's gasped "Oh" as she understood.

"2 years until I finally had enough on him. And the so-called "Winter Soldier" practically got away with a warning."

"Hardly." Natasha tutted but Steve was having none of it.

"I wouldn't let that man near this case without…"

Fury interrupted, his voice just starting to sound threatening. "Of course you realise the decision is not yours."

"So nothing I say will warn you against this?"

"You were asked for consult only so I could see how willing you would be, and if you weren't, to give you warning."

Steve glared at Fury for a moment longer, incensed and unable to find words to express it. Finally he turned on his heel, dislodging Natasha's still conciliatory touch and walked out the room.

"Think about it Steve. He should be here tomorrow." Nick called down the corridor as Steve strode furiously towards the elevator.

Steve came back into the office still in a bad mood. He had walked straight out of the building last night, grabbing only his jacket and so his office and notes were still in the untidy state he had left them the previous evening.

Instead of sorting the actual case files out he went into his filing cabinet and searched for the much larger file on the case that had got him promoted into the FBI from police captain before he had managed to solve it. The face of the man was taped at the front. Steve had actually only met him twice; once when he'd brought him in; once before when he had questioned him but didn't have enough evidence for an arrest, something that the smug bastard had known only too well.

He flicked through the pages of his own scribbled notes, statements and complaints from victims of the hacker. He had evaded Steve for two years and had flown under the radar before that for who knew how long. That was part of the reason the computer genius and scam artist extraordinaire had managed to get away with nothing more than a fine and a sentence of house arrest.

The charges had included fraud, criminal impersonation, credit scams and an instance, unproven although Steve was almost certain it was the Winter Soldier, of hacking into the White House security and doing nothing more than changing the wi-fi password.

By looking at the files Steve only reinforced his memory of the man as a sneaky, dangerous thief who couldn't be trusted. Yet here was Nick Fury, director of the National Security department, welcoming him in with open arms. Fury who, Steve realised, had not come to see him or otherwise check on him today.

Finally, around lunch time, Natasha came in with a sandwich and coffee peace offering from the deli she knew he liked. They sat quietly eating for a few minutes until she broke the silence.

"So, what are you thinking?"

He looked up at her and she nodded down at the file still open on his desk that he had been absentmindedly glancing back to.

"I don't like it." He said quickly and at her raised eyebrow he shook his head. "No really, I don't trust him and I don't think I can work with him."

"You know Nick was hoping you would go along with this easily. He really believes this will work out."

"He didn't study the guy's movements for over a year. Just wait until this guy has hacked into the system and taken who knows how many of our secrets."

"That won't happen. We have…measures in place."

"Yeah, and he can beat them." He finished his sandwich and threw the wrapper at the bin. "I just don't like it. I don't like him." He snapped the folder closed for emphasis and reached for his coffee before freezing, fingertips just shy of the cup.

"But you hardly know me!" The voice came from the doorway to his office. Natasha spun around to follow Steve's gaze and see Fury and Darcy standing on either side of the new arrival. His dark hair was longer than when Steve had last seen him but otherwise he looked just as he remembered, right down to the bold smirk on his face.

"I thought I might find you both in here. James Barnes, I'd like you to meet our lead agents on the Hydra case, Natasha Romanov and, ahh,"

"We've met." Steve said brusquely.

Barnes gave a small nod of his head to Natasha and Steve, the courtesy slightly ruined by his mischievous look, "Please, my friends call me Bucky."

Steve gritted his teeth, "We're not your friends."

Barnes frowned briefly, "Okay, everyone calls me Bucky. I don't know who this James is."

"Just another name you pretend to be." Steve muttered under his breath. Natasha shot him a look but luckily Director Fury didn't seem to have heard. He promised himself he would never call this man Bucky.

"Okay, Mr Bucky, you understand the conditions of this agreement?" Fury asked when the silence from Steve and Natasha might have become too long.

"Oh, they were made perfectly clear."

"So, how did you get into their system? How far did you get?" Darcy blurted out, obviously waiting until the barest of pleasantries had been exchanged before she got to find out the juicy details.

"Well, I got all the way but getting in then wasn't the problem."

"What do you mean, there were more encryptions?" Darcy pressed.

"I wasn't hacking them. I worked for them." Steve shot Barnes a piercing look, followed by quickly looking at Fury, who he noticed wasn't meeting anyone's eye. Natasha was looking at Fury too so Steve couldn't judge her reaction. Barnes only seemed to be enjoying the effect he'd had.

"Oh this just gets better and better." Steve threw his hands in the air after the sudden quiet. Then, leaving them in his own office, he got up and walked out for the second time in as many meetings.


	2. Chapter 2

Natasha came to find him about 5 minutes later, as he'd known she would. He had gone to the small balcony at the back of the building, officially a smoking area but it was a small, outside space in an otherwise stuffy office building and Steve always knew he could use it when he needed to clear his head.

She came up behind him, stopping a pace away and waiting until he acknowledged her with a slight turn of his head over his shoulder towards her.

"Walking away isn't your answer, Steve."

He dropped his head, "I know, I just…why can't there be another way?"

"Because life is cruel and likes to make you suffer." She said calmly, her tone making Steve look back up at her. Her face was serious but her eyes told a different story. Without meaning to he chuckled out a laugh, nodding in agreement.

"That it does." Fixing her with another look, he sobered a little, "So Fury sent you to bring me back?"

"And you're a detective?" she mocked.

"Alright, wise guy. So you think Fury's gonna lynch me?"

"Nah, just suck up and play nice and you'll be fine."

"That's what I was afraid you'd say." He bumped her shoulder as they turned to walk back inside, trying to pass it off as a light comment but she glanced up and caught his eye.

"Look Rogers, I never thought I'd say this to you but you're going to have to ignore your gut or whatever powers your inhuman sense of righteousness and trust Fury on this one."

"Do you?"

"Couldn't do my job if I didn't." she shrugged him off and he saw in the set of her stature that she meant it. He focused on that. Nat was the best partner he'd had in years, he trusted her in the field to have his back and he knew he trusted her judgement. He drew on her determination and belief in Fury's decision and he followed her back into his office.

Darcy was now sat in his seat, her laptop out on his desk as she tapped away at something. Meanwhile Barnes had moved to look over her shoulder. As Steve trailed Natasha back into the room he saw the look in Fury's expression, which read something like 'You will behave or so help me, we will have a serious talk.' Barnes looked up at the same time but said nothing, surprising Steve.

Darcy didn't take her eyes off the computer screen as she spoke, "Ah good, we're all best buddies now and can get on with business." Her fingers froze over the keyboard and she slowly met Steve's eye, looking like a deer caught in the headlamps as she realised she had spoken out of turn again.

"How about we say we are and get cracking?" Barnes spoke into the awkward silence and Steve bit back a retort when he caught Fury's sharp gaze aimed directly at himself. Instead he raised his hands in front of him in surrender, lowering them quickly when he saw Barnes smirk at him for that.

Fury took over, quickly getting to sharing the facts of the case with Barnes, that there had been no reason to suspect Hydra of any foul play until an anonymous tip that had been sent to the FBI concerning unhappy and angry customers and/or victims. Due to the nature of the tip it had been pushed under a stack of other things and only recovered to be taken seriously 5 months after it had arrived.

The team of Security Agents had searched for weeks and found only cursory details, their records showing the company lent money to other businesses but without records of how the business operates, it was unknown where they actually got their money from.

They had managed to track down a couple of the 'customers' who had been victims of the dealings and taken some statements but even with those they were left in the dark. The statements consisted mostly of "I'm not sure but…" and "I don't really understand it but…" where they had ended up losing huge chunks of money or been victims of identity theft and couldn't even confidently say it was because of their connection to Hydra.

"Also, among the list of companies that Hydra can be identified as a sponsor, there are a number of companies connected to weapons manufacturing. Which is why I suggested you follow up that lead next, Steve." Fury interrupted his own monologue, so far he had spoken alone with only assenting nods from Natasha and Steve throughout. "Otherwise, all our leads have shrivelled up and died - mostly figuratively - in the past two weeks until Miss Lewis here connected to your computer or whatever happened, Mr Barnes."

"So, I'm just your next piece of evidence?" Barnes sounded somehow disappointed, Steve thought.

"We need to know what you know. If you were on the inside, that's even better." Fury confirmed and Steve smiled, not hiding his enjoyment of how the Director smoothly put the hacker in his place.

"Sir, if we moved this to the interrogation room we might speed things along. Barnes here might at least be a little more familiar with the surroundings." Barnes shot him an almost poisonous glare which Steve didn't hesitate to return.

"I was hoping," Fury stopped Steve from stepping forward and wrestling Barnes out of his office himself, through gritted teeth, "we could carry out the investigation in a civilised manner. If you are incapable, Barnes is currently the least replaceable person in this room."

Steve stared at Fury in anger at being shown up, in front of Barnes of all people, but also knew he couldn't argue the point, not now. He acquiesced silently, nodding sharply and looking down at the ground.

Natasha stepped in quickly, saving Steve his remaining dignity, "So what we're saying is we have evidence we don't fully understand, against an almost unknown quantity and want you to shed some light. What can you give us?"

Barnes' eyes could have pierced Natasha if he studied her any more intensely after she spoke. When he answered, he spoke as though nothing had happened and he was chipper as could be.

"It seems to me like you got me here to do my thing and unfortunately, my thing includes computers. You're going to have to talk to my probation officer about letting me on one."

Fury looked confused just as Steve remembered the terms of the probation that had allowed Barnes to stay out of jail. "He's banned from using computers or devices with internet access for the course of his sentence."

"Aww, you remembered. I'm touched." Barnes pouted gratingly.

"I remember demanding they review the sentence because I knew you could still be a threat anywhere other than in jail." Steve retorted quickly and then became more incensed when he saw the flash in Barnes' eyes, a victory in managing to get a rise out of him. The guy got under his skin and Steve's usual self-control was stretched to breaking point.

"Sir, shall I get the permissions we need?" Natasha glared at Steve now, a clear warning to hold his tongue. He was starting to get tired of those looks. Fury just glanced from Steve to Barnes and nodded in agreement to Natasha. With her usual efficiency she was out of the room and off to speak to the county judge before anyone else could react.

Darcy started chatting to Barnes about something on her computer, it sounded like she was asking his opinion about a problem she had but it was clear she was filling the silence left in Natasha's wake. However Barnes seemed perfectly eager to talk back and within seconds was talking about changing settings and code and things that Steve allowed to go straight over his head.

Barnes was just typing something over Darcy's shoulder, which Steve was pretending not to pay attention to, as Natasha came back. She had a laptop under her arm, one of the office units that served as back-up and spares for whenever they might be needed.

"Alright, where are we setting up?"

"You've had the injunction revoked already?" Barnes asked in obvious surprise. Natasha smirked

"He's reviewing and he'll get back to me in a couple of hours." She looked at Director Fury, who only shook his head at her in exasperation. Meanwhile Steve nearly bit his tongue in half trying not to speak up.

"Let's start with the conference room." Fury said and with that he was leading Darcy and Barnes out the office. Natasha hung back at Steve's side and looked up at him readily after they were out of earshot. Steve groaned at the same time.

"Why are you doing this to me, Nat? Can't you just play by the rules when we're already breaking all the rest?"

"I'm just following the trend." She smiled sweetly and then laughed at Steve's frown, "Come on, I'm just speeding things along. The faster he gets going, the faster you can get him out of here." She nudged him gently with her shoulder and Steve huffed out a breath. They just turned to head for the door when Fury's roar carried clearly from the next corridor.

"Romanov, Rogers, while we're still young!" Natasha grabbed Steve's notes from his desk and thrust them at him while she chuckled, Steve merely sighed at her joy in his discomfort.

Quickly enough they set up the room so that Barnes was at a computer, Darcy was ready next to him with her laptop already running and Steve looked over their shoulders. Natasha was sitting in one of the chairs, looking more relaxed while Fury stood at the opposite side of the table.

"I trust you three can fill him in on the details he needs to help us. Otherwise, I have other things to see to." Fury announced once they were arranged and without giving them time to reply, or protest, Fury had left, closing the door behind him.

"So, where do we start?" Barnes leaned back in his chair immediately, hands tucked behind his head and twisted over his shoulder to look at Steve, the picture of nonchalance. Steve didn't try to control himself. He kicked the leg of the precariously balanced chair and for a moment the smirk slipped from Barnes' face as he grabbed out for the table to balance himself.

"We need you to tell us what you know about Hydra. What do they do, how do they do it and what other companies do they have shares in?" Steve reverted to his persona usually saved for the interrogation room.

"Alright, agent, will you let me touch the laptop?" Barnes said acerbically. He poised his hands just above the keys, awaiting permission.

"Do what you need to, just give us the information or I'll see that you're on your way behind bars before you can make one more funny comment."

Barnes merely rolled his eyes before moving to get the computer on and running. He had it on a browser and Steve watched as he opened a few links, typed in a few things and then seemed to be on a login page. Next thing, he looked back up and gestured at his screen.

"So this is what you have on Hydra, right?" He said as his eyes scanned across the files. Steve meanwhile was gawping at what he had up on screen: the electronic copies of everything he had been studying for the last two weeks.

"How did you get those?" He demanded, immediately suspicious of the speed with which he had obtained information. Natasha walked to his side, either intrigued or equally wary but Steve was grateful to have her eyes on Barnes' case as well.

"Relax, Captain America, these were sent to me, probably by your bossman." Steve pulled a face at the nickname but he looked to Darcy who nodded in confirmation. "Besides, how fast do you think I am?"

"Alright fine, but we already knew all of that. How about you give us the intel we don't have." Natasha stepped forward, dismissing the files on screen with a wave of her hand.

"Well then, I'm going to need more time."

"You worked for them! Can't you tell us something without downloading the information?" Steve tried not to sound ignorant but something just wasn't adding up and Barnes was avoiding their questions.

Barnes took his hands from the keyboard and his eyes from the screen, considering them before answering. "It didn't quite work like that. I just filled out their orders; I didn't know the full story."

"What orders?"

"I connected them with companies. And … applied pressure when they weren't given what they wanted.

"So, you were their hitman?" Steve said, giving Barnes a onceover that revealed that while the guy may be a computer using recluse, he certainly wasn't built the typical way he might expect.

"Well, you can't kill people through the computer. I just persuaded them to do what the company wanted." Barnes evaded them.

"How?"

"That, I'm not going to tell you. Off the record, I don't think you want me kicked out of here just yet."

"You're not off the record," Steve growled, causing Natasha to nudge him aside and lean on the back of Darcy's chair.

"You're not on the record. Tell us what you can about them; your previous placements are not the concern right now." She turned to Steve and after a second, so did Barnes, one eyebrow raised inquiringly.

Trying to ignore the criminal, Steve locked eyes with Natasha and finally nodded reluctantly.

"Thank you," Natasha said quietly and then winced when Barnes spoke up.

"What was that? I didn't quite hear you." Steve held himself very still, afraid that he might grab the other man's ridiculous hair and smash his smug grin into the table.

"Don't. Just don't."

"You gonna get off my back?"

"I will take every necessary precaution."

"That doesn't sound like they'll be the best working conditions for me."

Steve jumped forward before he knew it. He grabbed Barnes' shoulder and spun him on the chair so his back crashed against the table, ending with his face only inches from the hacker's. "Listen to me very carefully. I will watch your every move to make sure you don't step out of line. I will be on your back like a god damned race jockey every minute until this is done. Make sure you understand me. Now get on with this so I can get your criminal ass out of my sight as soon as possible."

With this outburst he released Barnes' shoulder with an extra shove for good measure and then put his hands up in the air to show Natasha he was finished. He then stepped back to lean against the window and waved Natasha forward.

Barnes' sat with his eyebrows raised in surprise once he had been released. He then looked Steve up and down carefully, clearly reassessing the man. Once he seemed satisfied Steve thought he saw him give the slightest inclination of his head in a nod, whether to himself or aimed at Steve, the agent couldn't tell. Either way, he couldn't decipher its meaning.

Then the hacker turned back to the computer and looked to Natasha for direction. Steve carefully held himself back, allowing his partner to question Barnes her way.

* * *

**Thank you everyone who read and liked this. A couple of disclaimers i forgot to add last time. I know nothing about hacking. I also know little to nothing about the FBI, or America, I am driven only by love for Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers and all the Marvel characters.**

**So thank you for continuing to read. This chapter is just being posted across from Tumblr so the next chapter should hopefully be up later today.**


	3. Chapter 3

Steve was antsy. They hadn't got much more information out of their new lead than they had before, partly because he was being cagey with his information and partly because he told them he didn't know much more than he had already said.

"Look, I was kept in the dark, I just did what they wanted and I learnt not to ask questions." He had repeated in various forms until Steve had given up, gave Natasha a look and left her alone while he could get on with anything else. By the end of the day, after Barnes had been escorted home and Natasha was finishing up notes in the office Steve went to query her on anything new.

She looked up before he had even knocked on her door and then back down at the files in front of her, shaking her head.

"I got nothing Steve. There was nothing more to tell after you'd left."

"He wouldn't tell or couldn't?"

"I don't know."

"Nat, come on." Steve started disbelievingly.

"No really, the guy has one hell of a poker face." She said, equally baffled. She could usually read a person's next response before they even knew what they were going to say. "I couldn't even tell if he was relaxed or worried. He never settled on one."

Steve studied her, she seemed genuinely confused and if he didn't know her better, he could almost detect that she was slightly impressed.

"But, if you want, you can look through the notes I took, just give me half an hour to make sure I'm done, then you can give me a lift home." She looked up and tilted her head, eyes wide with innocence. Steve snorted and shook his head despairingly.

"Fine, I'll get a coffee."

"Black, one sugar thanks." Her voice followed him out the door. He tapped on the outer wall to show he'd heard as he walked off.

As it turned out, Natasha had eaten and watched Men in Black at Steve's flat in what had blatantly been a ploy to make sure he took the night off. He'd thanked her as she left, grateful for the chance to come off the case for a short while though he wouldn't admit how much he realised he had needed it.

Still, once she had left he'd taken her files out and went though, making notes on what they had. As he flicked through he found himself increasingly more frustrated at the few notes he was making. Barnes sure talked a hell of a lot for a guy who was telling them absolutely nothing. So much for Fury's great breakthrough.

He would ask Darcy tomorrow what she'd got from Barnes, since he'd told her something before she scampered off mid afternoon to try it out, saying that she couldn't work in the 'confines of the FBI wifi'. It looked like Barnes was already corrupting his whole team.

Steve thought he was doing quite well the next day. He stayed in his office but in the plan of their floor he could see into the conference room Natasha was in if he kept his door open. He could see Nat's expression when she became annoyed or was pushing Barnes for more information. The hacker had his back to Steve, probably for the best so Steve couldn't get riled up over his smug expressions he used for deflecting questions.

He was staring at the back of Winter Soldier's head, trying to work out what long, useless answer he was giving when Steve's phone buzzed on the desk with a text from Natasha.

_Judge's permit for Bucky through. What do you think?_

He glanced up to see Natasha looking at him through the glass of the conference room, eyebrow arched. He was summoned.

As he entered the room with a laptop in his hand, Barnes twisted in his chair to look up at Steve, eyes flicking to the computer immediately.

"So boss, does this mean you're going to let me play?" Bucky turned back to Natasha, query in his face. Steve ignored him.

"Anything?" Natasha shook her head and Steve sighed. "And you think this is the best way?" He asked quietly, after he had moved around the room to her side.

"Are you giving him a chance?" Natasha breathed, looking at him with brows drawn.

"I'm asking you. Is this the best way?"

She turned to look at Barnes, he made as if to say something but Natasha made the smallest shake of her head and he closed his mouth. Instead he sat back and flicked his eyes t Steve engagingly.

She nodded slowly, "It needs to be tried." Only at this point did her eyes meet Steve's and then he nodded on acceptance. She had spent longer with him and talked to him. Despite her reservations in her ability to read him yesterday, she was telling him that she trusted him with this, for whatever reason.

Steve strode back the opposite side of the table and placed the laptop in front of Barnes. When the other man reached forward to open the screen, Steve kept his hand firmly pressed on top. For the first time, Steve tried to reason with the hacker on the same level, speaking earnestly.

"This is a federal investigation. I hope you realise the significance of that. We need evidence against Hydra. We also need that evidence to be legal in a court of law when it comes to that." Barnes stared at the hand on top of the laptop for just a second more, and then his eyes found Steve's.

"I want to bring them down. Let me." The intensity behind his stare was a surprise to Steve, who removed his hand, still holding the blue eyes in his own as he straightened up.

"Natasha, you need any help." Steve turned away towards his partner.

"Not yet, but if you can take over in half an hour or so?" She smiled at him, her approval and support evident. He nodded and turned to leave.

"You still won't trust me to be left alone?" Barnes asked just as Steve opened the door.

"Not at all." Steve said without looking back.

After half an hour Steve thought he had collected all the files on weapons companies that Darcy had found the names of connected to Hydra. He looked at the clock, then at the conference room. He saw Natasha stood by the door with her hand poised to leave.

With a step to the side he could also see Barnes hunched over the computer on the desk, typing rapidly. He tried to suppress a shiver running up his spine caused by his own morals being flaunted in his own office like this.

Natasha turned and caught his eye, walking out the door and towards Steve's office.

"I've got other things to get on with." She started quickly, before Steve could say anything.

"Are you just going to leave him there?"

"That wasn't the plan, no."

"I was just starting on the companies Darcy found." He started to protest, lifting the files in his arms to show her.

She turned and looked at the rest of the pile he had made on his desk and quickly picked them up, neatly depositing them in his arms as well. "You can read and babysit at the same time."

"Nat, there isn't someone else…"

"No, you set up these rules; you go in and do your part." She stepped behind him and elbowed him forwards. "And try not to get into an actual fight with him."

He stumbled forwards as she pushed him again and he weakly protested but in the end he found himself taking all the files to the conference room. Natasha tucked a pen in his back pocket as he went and he grunted his thanks, annoyed and impressed by her observational skills.

He struggled with the door, only just managing to press the handle down and start to pull it as Barnes noticed his situation and stood to open it. The long haired man had been completely engrossed in whatever he'd been doing on the computer but had jumped to his feet to help Steve. Steve was torn between his desire to pretend the other man in the room didn't exist and the value his mother had always instilled in him of politeness. His mother won out, as always.

"Thank you." He said formally as Barnes sank carelessly into his chair. Exactly as Steve had anticipated, Barnes gave him a smile that, this time, Steve could ignore.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Barnes shrug and turn back to his computer. He turned to look at the hacker, the determined concentration on his face as he typed rapidly, fingers flying over the keys as comfortably as a skilled musician on their instrument.

Steve sat and put his files in front of him, picking out the topmost file and opening it to the first sheaf of information, before turning his eyes back to watch Barnes at work. The tapping of keys drew his attention, like an annoying fly in the room. Still, he wondered to himself, it was like the man was part machine, the keyboard an extension of himself.

He made himself look back down at the page in front of him, tried to tune out the rhythmic clicking and focus on learning what VVD Corp did. His attention was interrupted once again shortly afterwards when Barnes sat back from the computer and turned to Steve.

"So, you got any stories?"

Steve took a moment to process the question then turned in confusion to the other man who was now twisted, one arm hooked over the back of his chair as he looked towards Steve, at the head of the table. He marked his place carefully with his pen then frowned.

"What?"

"I'm just letting this scan for matches. So, I got a while." He replied easily. Steve got up to look at the digital screen. A black screen filled with green text startled Steve and he didn't know how to react.

"What is this? I warned you to watch what you were doing."

Bucky sat back, his arms slowly lifted in a pose of surrender, though his tauntingly raised eyebrow gave a different impression. It was only then that Steve realised he had automatically put his hand to his belt. He slowly removed it but when Barnes kept eyeing him he sighed and lifted his jacket. "What, you think I carry a gun in an office?"

Barnes merely shrugged, continuing to infuriate Steve. "Look, just cool it buddy. This is totally above board. I'm not doing anything illegal."

"It's Agent to you. And it's looks about as illegal as it gets." Steve could see that Barnes barely just managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

"Alright, well it's not, and you're just going to have to trust me, Agent."

"You throw around trust like it's easy to gain. It just shows you don't know me well."

Barnes stayed quiet for a moment, considering. "So, what will it take for you to trust me?"

"A cold day in Hell." Steve was ready to leave it there, his point made and his back was already turned but Barnes looked at the screen, where it had made no progress and was still loading. He still had time to fill.

"Don't worry, I can make any evidence you use look totally legal." There was a smirk in his voice and that was what really tipped Steve over the edge. He turned back, grabbing Barnes' arm, still draped over the back of the chair. In a swift movement he had it twisted up and with that pulled the other man to his feet and pressed against the table. Barnes gave a swift intake of breath in surprise before standing still. Steve felt something hand under his hand, on the man's wrist but he ignored it.

"I'm not playing with you. I want to get to the bottom of this case and everything in me told me not to work with you but I did, because I thought you could tell us what we need. I will also not hesitate to kick you back out to face the judge again, if I can drag your name through the mud that would be perfect. But you will not take me down with you so you will toe the line, you will not put a foot wrong." Steve looked up at a noise and realised the door was being pushed open. Natasha walked hurriedly in and closed it again. Before she could speak Steve released Barnes from his grip, pushing the hacker away from him.

"Rogers, are you doing okay?" She said, "You've manhandled the guy twice in as many days and if you're not careful, it'll be Fury who interrupts you next time."

"I know, I'm fine." He said, not looking at Natasha.

"Do I need to find someone to take over from you?" she said in a tone of voice that strongly suggested she had better not need to find someone to take over from him.

"I can do it, just tell me that whatever that is," he gestured to the screen, "it's not sketchy."

She scanned it quickly, then said, "It's not sketchy, a code query, I think." She looked to Barnes for confirmation and he nodded back at her, looking impressed. "So can I leave you alone together without anything untoward happening again?" She said, ducking in time to avoid Steve's wordless shove to get her out the room. "Just being thorough," was her parting comment.

A moment of quiet followed the door closing but, true to form, Barnes broke it with a low whistle. "Talk about good cop, bad cop."

"I'm not joking around." Steve barely growled

"Yeah, I got that." The dark haired man rubbed his wrist where Steve had grabbed him and Steve looked at it, almost guiltily, aware of his own strength. What caught his eye was the black band around Barnes' arm, a thick electronic bracelet. He frowned as he recognised it.

"So that's how they keep track of you?" He pointed at it and Barnes rubbed it absentmindedly.

"Yeah. I got the special tech, it also detects electronics, data flow, that kind of thing."

"So it knows when you're using a computer?" Steve couldn't help but be interested, this was clever stuff.

"Yeah, it's not set off by small things like microwaves or a house phone, but a computer, I basically have a data limit."

"Like broadband?"

"What kind of crappy contract are you on? But yeah, basically." Barnes continued on, amiably enough as if nothing had happened before. "It's been a low tech couple of years. I haven't been able to carry out any of my computing ways." He pouted at Steve, who controlled a smile at the ridiculous expression. Until a thought came into his head.

"So if you really haven't been online, how did Darcy find your trail or whatever happened? She said she traced you."

"Oh that." He paused and Steve thought it looked like he was doing some very quick thinking. "That wasn't an active thread. She just found something I laid down while I was working for them. It was years old." Steve wasn't slightly convinced; if this was the top poker face Natasha had been up against he thought her game was off.

"Look," Barnes continued. "I can't give you information. I don't know anything. I _get_ you information." For once, Steve decided to play Natasha's game, allowing the person to talk and seeing where their story tripped up. He quietly took note of the lie.

"So why 'WinterSoldier'?" Steve prompted for a new topic.

Barnes chuckled, a joke he seemed reluctant to share, until he looked up and said "As a kid I was a bit of a comic book nerd. I just thought it sounded like one of the superheroes."

Steve frowned, "Sounds more like a supervillain to me."

Barnes merely shrugged, an expression of unconcern across his face. "They always had the more interesting back story anyway."

* * *

**Thanks to anyone reading, liking and reviewing this story, it means a lot. You guys keep me writing**


	4. Chapter 4

It was some time later when the laptop on the table stopped scrolling and came up with a "Scan Complete" message. At the change in lights from the screen, Barnes looked over his shoulder at it and grinned.

"Success?" Steve prompted him when, instead of giving any explanation, the other man had turned fully round to the device and began quickly scrolling back up the screen.

"4 matches. On that term anyway. But if we keep trying them, I can get you plenty of leads to go on."

"Shall I get Darcy?"

"Nah, I can email her a couple to follow up." Barnes waved offhandedly at Steve's suggestion, without looking up from the screen. Not fond of the snub, Steve got up to look at the screen.

In the time the computer had been busy doing its thing, Steve had returned to his seat but he and Barnes had kept a fairly constant flow of conversation. Nothing groundbreaking, but more than Steve had expected to be able to get through with this man. In fact he was surprised at how easily the conversation had carried on, all the while he had remained wary, but it had just been the sort of talk you don't really remember afterwards. It just flowed.

Now that Barnes had turned back to the computer, it occurred to Steve that the hacker may have been using some special trick to control the conversation and avoid serious topics. As he stood over the desk he took a moment to take another hard look at this surprisingly smooth talker, sizing him up once more.

"Are you seeing if you can burn through the back of my head?"

Steve looked down at the computer to see the eyes of the hacker reflected in the screen and staring straight up at his own face. He hastily averted his gaze towards his shoes, an awkward cough on his lips before he pulled his attention back to the screen, determinedly ignoring the other man still smirking in the reflection.

While Barnes continued to jabber on, something about what he would tell Darcy to follow up on and all in far too cheery a voice, Steve continued to watch the screen without taking it in. All his previous fears and misgivings about getting the help on this case came back to him and he wondered what brief insanity had overtaken him that he had relaxed in the other man's presence so easily. Steve was not someone who could be tricked so easily and he had plenty of reasons to put up his guard. Barnes was better at this than he had imagined.

When Natasha came into the room a little later, Steve said few words to her; Barnes could fill her in on the technical details better than himself, and then he hurried from the room. He went back to his office, carefully laying out the case files across his desk, anything to get him out of the fraud's presence.

A few hours later and near the end of the day he had almost settled himself fully into the case, focused and ignoring the vague feeling in the back of his mind, the one that made his skin crawl and that he couldn't fully explain. It was a more extreme reaction than even he could rationalise and so rather than try and figure out why he was so uncomfortable he elected to pretend it wasn't there.

That was the moment that he was startled by the phone on his desk ringing. He startled and let go of the pen, also ignoring the fact he had been gripping it so tight that it had indented into his fingers, and answered the phone.

"Rogers, you busy?" The gruff voice on the other end made no pleasantries.

"Director Fury, I'm just making notes on the…"

"Good. Take a trip to my office."

"Now, Sir?"

"Unless you have better things to be doing, yes now."

"Okay, Sir. I'll be … and he's gone." Steve finished to the empty line tone. He walked out of his office, not looking towards the occupied conference room, and headed towards the elevator.

"Anything I should know?" Fury began as soon as Steve pushed open his door.

"About the case? Nothing that I can think of. I believe Barnes may have found something using his methods." Steve fought to keep his voice neutral.

"And that, Rogers, is my problem."

Steve shook his head in confusion. "I don't follow."

"You 'believe'. If you focused on this case instead of focusing on licking your own wounds like a kicked dog, you would know that the information Barnes dug up has led us to a whole new line of information. Hydra has been in contact with a number of companies abroad that manufacture mass weaponry."

Steve had no idea of this, he only gawped at Fury in surprise. Had he really been that out of it all day? Was this Darcy's doing based on Barnes' Intel or was the hacker contaminating the evidence by doing it himself?

"This is what I mean Rogers. I need you at the top of your game and I know you're better than this. Which is why I want you on the front line, in the trenches."

"What does that mean?" Steve narrowed his eyes.

"You are going to play nice. You are my best man in here, best woman not included," Fury added as an aside and Steve nodded in offhanded agreement. "You have the opportunity to do some of your greatest work here if you put your freakishly high morals aside for one moment. So I'm going to help you with that. You're on car duty."

"Car duty? You mean …ferrying him home?"

"And babysitting."

"You must be joking."

"You're going to be a team player. And I'm going to enjoy it."

"Why? I can work perfectly well with Tasha while she deals with Barnes, she already knows how to."

"Because I can't have a chasm in my team."

"This isn't a team Nick! This is a goddamn mockery."

Fury went silent and Steve bit his tongue, waiting for the inevitable lashing.

"Do your job Rogers." Came the surprisingly controlled reply.

Recognising the plain dismissal, Steve could only exit the room, a sharp, mute nod his final rejoinder.

He first had to collect his charge from the conference room where Natasha was still sitting with him. As he walked in they were both chuckling, lounging quite comfortably in their chairs and looked up as the door opened.

"Alright, time to leave, Barnes." He said sharply, their relaxed attitudes irked him. Natasha made a noise at his announcement but said nothing. The same could not be said of Barnes.

"You're taking me home Agent? Will you buy me dinner first?" He said immediately and Steve mentally growled at his persistent, grating audacity.

Instead Steve turned to Natasha. "Does he have cuffs to take him out to the car?" Side-eyeing the other man, he added, "and possibly a gag."

"Hmm, kinky." Barnes could not be stopped. Steve looked pleadingly at Natasha and saw her staring between them, here eyebrow arched in that way that meant she was holding back an unprofessional smile.

"Nick put you on this duty?" She said, amusement just curling the corner of her mouth.

"He wants me 'in the trenches'." Steve bit out sourly and Natasha grinned fully.

"Then I can't cover for you. You'll have to work this one out with him yourself." She reached into a drawer at the desk and tossed Steve a pair of handcuffs. "Play gentle." She smirked as she brushed past him, throwing a wink at Barnes and stepping through the doorway.

Steve turned back to Barnes to find him holding out his arms, wrists together with a pitiful expression on his face. "Truce?" He said sweetly. Steve grabbed his arms and, with a great deal of satisfaction, clicked the cuffs into place.

"I don't think so."

Escorting the hacker downstairs was achieved with minimal difficulty and Steve saw that Barns was placed in the rear seats of his car. The silence began to stretch even as Steve flashed his card at the machine to exit the parking lot.

Finally, as they pulled up at the lights at the end of that street, Barnes leaned over the seats in front.

"So, you going to be this chatty all night?"

"Why would you care? You don't want me there and I certainly don't want to be there." He said, twisting to look straight at Barnes and try to read his expression. The only reply he got was a blank face and a brief nod out the front window.

"You might want to look, the light just went green." Steve muttered silently under his breath as he turned back around and accelerated forwards again. After a couple of seconds Barnes' voice came from the back seat again, "Can't forget your road safety." Steve gripped the steering wheel tighter.

Another silence began to fall in the car, it took Steve a little longer before he began to relax into it.

"So are you going to talk about it?" Barnes' voice cut through his almost calm concentration once more.

"Talk about what?" Steve hoped he could just get the guy out the car, put him in his house then settle back into his own peaceful mind while on duty.

"The obvious seething hatred you have for me?"

"Doesn't seem to be something we need to talk about. You've already got it." Steve said and in the rear view mirror he saw the hacker pull a face.

"Well I thought that if we're going to be working together as partners…"

"We're not partners."

"We don't want this kind of tension. In particular I don't want you going and breaking my arm again."

"Oh come on, I did not break your arm."

"I didn't say it was you who did. I only said again. But I thought, to clear the air, I'm going to ask for it. So go on. I'm giving you one free question, anything you wanna ask me?"

Steve stopped to think about it, glancing in the mirror again to see the face reflected there and of course getting no reading on his expression.

"Okay." He said slowly, still thinking it through. "First off, I'm not going to wait for your say so before I ask anything I need to know. Secondly, why would you ever work for Hydra?"

A brief flash of expression across the hacker's face betrayed that he had caught Barnes off guard and Steve counted himself a personal victory.

"Why?" Barnes clarified. Buying himself time, as far as Steve could tell. "Well, you know. The pay was good, excellent benefits."

Steve put his hands up, in a gesture of defeat. There was no point in having this conversation if he was only going to pretend to be serious.

"Alright! So I didn't know what they were doing exactly." Barnes said quickly from the back seat. He leaned forwards again, this time his face between the two front seats. "I was just a kid looking for some money with the skills I had."

"And you couldn't get a job as a busboy?" Steve prodded and this time it was Barnes that gave a heavy sigh. Steve raised his eyebrows at the frustration in that noise but he didn't add anything else, enjoying the fact that this time it was the hacker who was put on his back foot.

"You know what. Maybe I couldn't." Barnes replied and without giving Steve a chance to reply, continued on. "And that was my street, just FYI."

Steve quickly jerked his head over his shoulder and silently berated himself as he realised he had completely missed the turn off. He pulled over at the next junction and flicked the indicator on irritably. With a few slightly too forceful tugs on the steering wheel they pulled up on the kerb and Steve got out. He had opened the trunk and retrieved his briefcase before he noticed Barnes hadn't copied him in getting out.

Stepping out to his side of the car, Steve gestured at him to hurry up and looked impatiently up and down the street. He heard the small tap on the car window and looked back to see Barnes holding up his hands for Steve to see that they were still handcuffed together. Steve grinned and he saw with some satisfaction how the other man's eyes widened in surprise and brief horror as Steve reached to open the car door.

"You've got to be joking, pal. This is where I live!" Barnes protested as Steve strode back around to close the trunk. The hacker was slowly and carefully climbing out of the vehicle when Steve got back to him and threw his coat over the other man's arms, simply concealing the metal restraints from view.

"Just smile and I'll do the waving if you see anyone you know." Steve said cheerfully. Barnes scowled.

"You can't leave me like this, I need my hands to get the door keys. Unless you're going to go into my pockets?" He said disbelievingly. Steve reached in front of Barnes, who watched with an inquisitive eyebrow as Steve put his hand into pocket of the coat slung over Barnes' arms and pulled out a set of keys, including a new copy of Barnes' own front door key. This drew out the aggravated groan he had been fishing for from his charge. Maybe this house detail job didn't have to be so terrible after all.

"You know what? I think you've just gone mad with power." Barnes grumbled as Steve unlocked the door on the street and not so gently pushed Barnes over the threshold. They walked up the stairs with Steve bringing up the rear and the hacker muttering over his shoulder at him all the way until they reached the third floor and the correct apartment.

Steve unlocked the door and Barnes walked inside before turning and pointedly raising his arms up towards the agent. Steve pulled the coat away and then proceeded to take his time flicking through the key chain to find the right one for the cuffs. He could see the other man beginning to fidget and look anxiously up and down the corridor before Steve finally selected the key and placed it in the lock.

The cuffs were no sooner removed than Barnes pulled his arms back towards him and gave his wrists a quick rub. Meanwhile Steve folded up the bracelets and with a quick, practised movement, clipped them back onto his belt. When he looked back up at Barnes, he had almost fashioned a perfectly straight face again, other than the slight daring quirk of his mouth.

The hacker looked at him for a second and then said in a flat voice, "Next time, I'm picking the safe word." His words were meant to shock but this time Steve was ready for him and met his expression without hesitation.

"At least you want a next time." He replied and Barnes stood there slightly open mouthed for a second, before he slowly closed his jaw and looked at Steve with a newfound expression of respect, slowly nodding in approval.

"So, how does this work with you exactly?" He said as he turned and walked further into his apartment, leaving the door standing open in front of Steve, who didn't move. Barnes had reached the counter before he turned and realised his guard hadn't followed. He gave Steve an inquisitive look.

"I stand guard, make sure you don't try to make a break for it or do anything stupid." Steve replied, giving a meaningful glance down at the sleeve that he now knew concealed the electronic bracelet.

"Like I said, mi prison es su casa." Barnes gestured grandly around the room. "Seriously, if it's easier I can sit like a good boy in my room while you use the couch as your base station."

"I'm fine out here. My shift will end in a few hours." Steve said brusquely, not sure why the other man was being so strangely welcoming. Instead he reached for the door handle and pulled it shut, ignoring the last second invitation the hacker was starting to form.

It was almost two hours later that Steve began to grow very bored with standing in the corridor. He couldn't very well open his files and start reading them out here in the hallway. Maybe this was another frustrating part of Fury's plan, he and Natasha were always on his back about trying to switch off from work every now and again. It was true that if he wasn't here he would be checking and rechecking his notes from his desk at home – or in the office. This had become a nightly exercise, despite him realising what a futile effort it was since nothing had changed in two weeks.

Nothing, that was, until Barnes had been brought on the case. That meant there was something new to add into his research web of the Hydra case, but this ridiculous punishment was preventing him from doing that. He stood silently cursing Fury in his head, while trying to draw up a photographic memory in his head of the notes he had made that day.

A noise just behind him made him spin and put a hand to his holster. The door to Barnes' apartment was slowly creeping open but no one was immediately coming through. Suspicions rising dramatically, Steve silently pulled his gun out and stood in front of the door.

He breathed in, out, then kicked it fully open, pulling his gun up to position in front of him and pointing into the apartment.

Barnes stood halfway across the room, completely frozen midstep, two mugs keeping his hands full.

There was a slight pause where neither of them said a word. Steve finally lowered his gun, the threat of his ward trying to sneak out obviously a false alarm.

"How do you like your coffee?" Barnes said slowly, and Steve noticed first with concern and then surprise that the hot drinks hadn't spilt at all. Steve walked forwards to take one out of the other man's hands, feeling abashed for his hasty behaviour. With the mug in hand he quickly turned to walk back out the door but found that Barnes followed him.

They both stood at the doorframe, mugs in hand, and then Barnes started laughing.

The sound was infectious and Steve found himself chuckling along with him, while trying to maintain a certain sense of distance and professionalism, although that cover may have just been blown.

"Thanks, for this." He gestured with the mug when they had both simmered down to no more than amused grins. "And sorry about…almost shooting you for it."

"Yeah well, it's not how most people show gratitude." He snorted and Steve couldn't help but grin. "What I was going to say was: you've done your tough guy act. I get that you can stand out here all night and look like the man of steel. But you'll be able to judge if I'm being domestic or criminal much better from that side of the door."

Steve looked at the expression on the other man's face. He wasn't mocking him this time, just asking an honest question as far as Steve could tell. Studying him carefully, Steve weighed up the pros and cons.

Finally, the thought of the comfy chairs and more importantly, the tables suitable for working on, swayed him. Steve picked up his briefcase and rounded the doorframe, bringing him into the hacker's apartment. Perhaps being put on this house detail didn't have to be so terrible after all.

* * *

So sorry for the massive delay on this one, I went away on a field trip and then went straight back to uni and it's been hectic ever since. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and i'm going to do my best to keep a semi-regular schedule of updating.


	5. Chapter 5

Once Steve was in the apartment he took a brief glance around, partly as an instinctual recce of his environment, the training from the agency kicking in. What he saw was an average apartment room; no stairs, a couple if doors leading off into the bedroom and bathroom and nothing else that distinguished it. When he turned back around to face Barnes, he found the hacker was just pushing the door closed with one hand, watching Steve curiously.

"I was not expecting you to actually come in that easily." He said, a slight smirk lifting the corner of his mouth.

"Well don't offer if you don't want people to take you up on it." Steve started. "Sorry if I'm making _you_ uncomfortable."

"Oh don't you apologise. I just thought you'd be more comfortable in here." Barnes took a moment more to look at Steve, who was still standing in the middle of the kitchen, the coffee cup gently steaming in one hand. "Milk's in the fridge, sugar's on the counter. I'll be in my room, unless you want to check it for possible escape routes first?" The dark haired man countered, although his words lacked the same sarcastic energy he usually used.

Steve felt the dynamic had shifted and it left him feeling out of place enough that he didn't come back with any witty comment. He watched as Barnes slunk towards one of the doors leading off the main room and just as he reached it, he said, "My replacement's coming at 11." Barnes simply turned and nodded slightly before shutting his door behind himself.

After taking a few moments in peace to add some sugar to his coffee, Steve took in the room. The longer look around helped him to realise what he had found odd about it. There were four walls, a sofa and a TV, the kitchen worktop looked orderly and there were a couple of old newspapers on a side table. However there wasn't anything more to it. There were no paintings or photos, nothing that gave anything more away about the man in the next room. There was no personal touch.

Natasha had laughed at the sparse decoration in Steve's own flat when she had visited, he had a few pictures of his mother and one or two photos marking special occasions; his graduation photo and the one from the day he was accepted into the police force back home in Brooklyn, before the bigger move to the agency. However even those few items made it look positively homely compared to the bleak apartment.

Somewhat perturbed, he instead turned to his briefcase and set himself to locating his old files from 2 years ago, the original data files he had collected on James Buchanan Barnes.

He skimmed the first page, practically from memory. Barnes had grown up an only child in the Bronx, his parents had been average people, completely clean records but his mother died when he was young. He had moved to his own place at age 18 when his father had passed away, leaving him alone. Then he had taken some time supporting himself with various small jobs before he had dropped off the grid somehow. It was in that time that Steve now guessed he had begun to work for Hydra, a move he couldn't possibly begin to get his head around.

However all of this Steve knew, had gone over in detail when he had been building his case to bring down Barnes. What he was looking for were the finer details of the Winter Soldier's life because something had registered in his mind while they had been talking that didn't seem to fit with his memory of the records.

After scanning through the Government Issue medical records, twice to make sure, Steve looked up with confusion spread plainly over his face at the door behind which the hacker was hidden. There was no mention in the file of a broken arm being set, or of any broken bones at all. Other than occasional check-ups the records showed that Barnes was fighting fit and had been through his whole disreputable career.

Other than that the records showed everything Steve expected, the hacker had been on this technologically limited house arrest ever since his court case. Given that was two years ago, Steve wondered again at the complete lack of settling in that had obviously been done at the apartment.

There was also a small nagging feeling in the back of his mind about the terms of Barnes' sentence, which he still believed had been far too lenient. This was supposed to be someone who made his career tinkering with tech equipment, but a small flashy bracelet was supposed to have kept him from exceeding some preset limit on his internet use for the past two years. It didn't take Steve's training to sense something rotten in that plan and he added it as fuel to his fire of suspicion burning at the back of his mind.

He sensed it was not by accident that Barnes had still not emerged from his room by the time Steve's replacement arrived, and Steve didn't try to let him know he was heading out. Instead he headed out to stand at his proper post by the front door fifteen minutes early and left the new agent to stand watch in the corridor.

It wasn't until Steve got back to his quiet home and sank into his own sofa that he saw the text from Nick.

_You're getting him in the morning. It's on your route._

Steve groaned and sank forwards, head falling into his hands.

The next morning Steve pulled up at the same blue door. Almost immediately his passenger emerged and came down the steps. Then he pulled the door to the front passenger seat open and sat down, completely ignoring Steve's loud protests.

"What, you think I'm going to sit in the back? Makes me feel like a prisoner." Barnes winked at Steve, who only glared back at him.

"Look Barnes. I know…"

"Call me Bucky, please."

"Erm, no. Will you just do your seatbelt so we can go?"

Barnes diligently pulled his belt into place, looking straight at Steve, who didn't return the gaze, shifting the car into gear and pulling away at the click of the latch. Barnes snorted at the deliberate timing.

After a few seconds Barnes huffed and slumped back in his seat. "How was your evening? Mine was good. Ah, nice to hear it. Yes, good talk." Steve looked into his wing mirror to disguise the smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth at his passenger's petulant tone.

"Alright then." He turned his head towards Barnes when a thought occurred to him. "So tell me this. What was with the stunt of inviting me into your apartment? What was that?"

Barnes looked at him steadily before he said, "You were the one who came in."

"I couldn't very well turn you down when I'd just near shot you!" Steve protested. In all honesty, he didn't know why he'd accepted except out of guilt. It was far from protocol but he was forced to admit that he'd had a surprisingly relaxed evening. It had been a pleasant change of scenery, even while he had been intensely conscious of the person in the next room. "You're avoiding the question Barnes."

"I'm just a hospitable guy?" He ended in a comical query but his face quickly settled into a serious expression. "So…maybe I wanted to thank you."

"For what?" Images of dragging Barnes in to the station, hassling him in the office and handcuffing him in the car flashed through Steve's mind and he was thoroughly confused.

Barnes rubbed the back of his neck, looking away. "For giving me a chance? You now, not kicking me out of the station when Fury brought me in. I know you kind of hate me."

"I didn't really have much choice in letting you onto the case." Steve tried to look over at Barnes in the seat next to him but now he was staring fixedly at the car in front of them.

"I was told they consulted you on it first?" He stifled an annoyed grunt. "Will you just accept the gratitude? It's not something that happens often and I'm trying to do a good thing here." Barnes retaliated, sounding quite adamant and strangely childlike.

"Alright fine. Thank you for your hospitality." Steve said, in a tone like a scolded child. He caught Barnes' side-eyed look but didn't respond

"No, that's not…_I_ was trying to thank _you_, ugh." The hacker moaned back and Steve laughed, an unexpected reaction for both of them. Steve concentrated back on the road and after a couple of moments began to count in his head. Sure enough, before he reached 5 he was interrupted by the ever impatient Barnes.

"So, how's life been treating you?"

"How's…what?" Steve threw a look of confusion at him once more. One day he might work out how this guy's mind leapt from one thought to the next.

"Well, for a start the big promotion. Last time I saw you, you were just a cop in the Brooklyn PD, now you're mister FBI. Nice moves there, Captain." Steve narrowed his eyes as he gave another look at the other man, surprised to find his expression actually sincere.

"That was, actually that was…you." Steve found it strange to try and explain this, realising there was no reason why Barnes should know this, it just seemed so intrinsically linked to the case in his mind. "My work in tracking you drew the agency's attention and I got the job offer just after you were brought in."

"Well this could be an awkward conversation." Barnes wasted no time in pointing out the facts.

"Yes, thanks for making it much worse." Steve shot back and Barnes cheered.

"Hey, look who's got some spunk." He goaded and Steve chose not to reply. "So what you're saying is – you owe me for your job?"

"No! That's not what I'm saying at all. How did you even…?" Steve looked across at Barnes with wide eyes, only to see him silently cracking up in his seat. Steve rolled down the window as they pulled off into the car park and retrieved his ID card for entry.

"You're a jerk."

"Oh lighten up. It's not like I'm trying to bring down your company from the inside or something." Barnes said frighteningly fast. Steve levelled a steady look at him after he'd pulled the car into the first available parking space. Rather than try to answer he just stared down the man in the passenger seat. After meeting his eyes for a couple of seconds, Barnes threw up his hands, "Alright fine, too soon."

Steve saw his chance and snapped out a hand, pulling one of Barnes' towards him and snapping the handcuff from his belt around it. It took a second of Barnes looking down at the one cuffed hand before he just looked up at Steve and moaned,

"Oh come on. What did I do?"

Steve, grinning to himself again, replied under his breath "What didn't you do?" Then he got out the car, walked around to the other side and looked at the passenger expectantly until he held out both hands together. "Can't have you walking into FBI headquarters completely without restraint." He said as he clicked the second bracelet into place.

"I thought that's what I had you for." Barnes said, and Steve pulled him out of the car, admittedly slightly more gently than he had previously.

He left Barnes in the conference room again while he went to his own office. As he walked into his own space he shook off the strange feeling in his mind, for the first time in a while having to make himself concentrate on the job at hand and settle into work mode.

It was only half an hour later that Natasha appeared in his doorway with a cursory knock on the wooden frame. "We're gonna be working in the conference room today." She said, then leaned patiently against the wall while he nodded and grabbed his stuff. "So how was your evening?"

"Strained."

"Yeah but…you coming round to working with him yet?"

"I'm doing what I have to."

Natasha smirked. He wasn't looking at her but he heard it in her voice and knew it didn't signal anything good "You're going to want to hold on to that cavalier attitude." When he straightened up she was watching him for a reaction. He sighed wearily and let her lead out of the room.

Nick was stood in the room, Barnes and Darcy were sat next to each other, both with computers open and fingers speeding across the keys. Natasha stopped for a quick look at the screens while Steve sat down a couple of seats from Darcy.

"Alright, listen up. We already have significant progress in terms of leads. Now we're going to make actual progress. Steve, I got your report, hopefully you're going to have to write a whole new one before I have to read the same recycled statuses again." Nick held no punches in meetings like this. Steve was also sure it was a further attempt to force Steve to admit their stalemate position. "Now, Barnes here has a plan of action for the day, if you could explain." Nick gestured to Barnes and stepped aside.

Barnes pushed his chair away from the desk so he could see them all as he spoke but before he opened his mouth Steve held up his hand to catch the man's attention.

"In layman's terms." He put in and Barnes nodded understandingly.

"As you wish." He cleared his thought dramatically. "Well I showed Darcy here how to do the things I was doing yesterday, with a list of the keywords I can remember. I don't know which will be active anymore. Now what I plan to do next – is break through Hydra's security." At this point he nodded sagely over at Steve and promptly began to make exaggerated gestures to go along with his words. "Just think of the security like an onion, with many layers that can be broken through to get some of the insides, without disrupting the middle."

He finished and looked up from the imaginary onion in his hands at Steve again, who rolled his eyes in response. Natasha snorted from her seat behind him. Darcy was nodding along but her eyes were focused on her own screen and she was clearly not focused on the talk at hand. Natasha had her notes out on the table in front of her.

"How do you know you can beat their security?" She spoke up.

"Well, I helped set it up." Barnes said plainly. Steve still couldn't decipher whether his tone was joking, remorseful, proud.

"You didn't think that was pertinent information before?" Fury drawled from the other side of the table, before Steve had the chance to ask the same question. Steve was only grateful for the evidence that his other team members were as suspicious of this hacker's habit of withholding facts as he was.

"Well you see, 'helped' is the key word here. It's not like I can just stroll through into their central mainframe and take all their secrets for you." Barnes put up a hand to ward off their mutually frosty expressions. "Alright, not big fans of secrets. How was I meant to know?" He shrugged, casually and the tension in the room dropped somewhat.

Steve was not assuaged completely. "How does it work? Won't they have some kind of sensor that will detect a hack?" He gave Barnes a hard stare and for a split second thought he saw a flicker of something strain across the darker haired man's expression before he it was gone and Steve wondered if it had been there at all.

"Unfortunately for you, you're just going to have to believe I know what I'm doing. So do I, for that matter." He tagged on the end and laughed at Steve's scowl. "So Natalia," He smiled suavely at her and Steve was exasperated to see Natasha respond in kind. "You'll be helping Darcy follow whatever information she gets from those tags?" Natasha nodded and slid her folder along the table, via Steve, to rest next to Darcy.

"Steve, you'll be finding out what you can dig up on any of those names Barnes got for us yesterday. Find the files, get checking." Meanwhile, we're all going to be on hand in case the technology side brings up a tricky situations." Nick gave the instructions, pushing himself to his feet again.

"Yes sir." Steve accepted and watched as the director left the room, closing the door behind him. Then he turned back to Barnes. "You sure you know what you're doing? And I mean absolutely positive. You have given us enough to start with and I don't want to lose this when you could have brought us so close."

He made sure to look Barnes straight in the eye, a challenge daring him just this once to be straight with him. The other man met his gaze steadily and then replied with more feeling than Steve had expected him to have invested in this case.

"Trust me. We're going to bring these guys down."

* * *

So perhaps leaving it until the day before i plan to update to start writing the chapter is pushing it a little. However, I have learnt and will start earlier next time. Still I hope you enjoyed reading and any comments are greatly appreciated


	6. Chapter 6

They had been sat in the room some time when Darcy huffed loudly, breaking the quiet lull that had settled in only the tapping of computer keys and rustle of papers. They looked up in unison and she looked back, a frown on her face.

"I hate silence." She said petulantly. Steve groaned at the disruption of his train of thought and turned back to his papers, until Barnes spoke up too.

"Me too. Isn't there some tunes we can whack on?" He moaned and was met by a stony glare from Steve. "Radio?" He suggested.

"Don't bother. Rogers here is of the mind any noise is wasteful distraction." Natasha spoke up and after Steve had glanced at her, he narrowed his eyes.

"That's not true. I just think this is an important job we're doing and we should be focusing on it properly." He protested.

"I work better with music." Barnes commented, eyebrows raised in provocation.

"Well that's just patently not true." Steve began but Darcy responded almost before he'd finished the sentence.

"I'm the same." Steve looked at Natasha for support but found none as she shrugged casually with one shoulder.

"I wouldn't mind a little atmosphere." She admitted and Steve glared. At the same time Barnes spun round in his chair and in a few seconds flat a familiar strain of music floated out of his laptop. Steve sighed heavily.

"Is that…?"

"She did say 'atmosphere'." Barnes cocked his head innocently.

"Mission Impossible is not quite what I meant." She muttered drolly but threw a grin in Barnes' direction.

Barnes turned back to his computer and continued typing, obviously not planning to change the song any time soon. Steve drew his face into a tight frown and hunched back over the files again. The song came to a close just as he had regained his place on the page and then Darcy leaned over to Barnes computer.

"Put the Bond theme on next. You know, the catchy one."

"Do you actually mean the theme or the titles song, Darce?" Natasha clarified, "Because I vote for Diamonds are Forever."

"Nah, what you mean is The Living Daylights." Barnes argued. Natasha shook her head.

"I should have known."

"What? It's brilliant."

"So very 80's."

"So yours is better?"

"Have you listened to the lyrics? Best by a mile." Natasha comfortably sparred with him while Darcy tried to butt in.

"It wasn't those. What's the other one?" She queried and earned matching looks of exasperation from either side of her.

"You know there's a different one for every film?"

"Yeah, I mean the other good one." The looks of despair only intensified.

"Live and Let Die." Steve said, although his eyes were still firmly fixed on the open folder in front of him. He still saw all three of them turn to look at him from the corner of his vision and he finally looked up. "No, you're right. This is totally helpful for productivity."

Natasha laughed at him and he scowled at her. She stuck her tongue out and he rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. She laughed again and turned back to Darcy's computer, pointing at some error that Darcy readily went back to correct. The next moment, Barnes had put on his A-Ha song and Natasha was glaring at him over Darcy's bent head. He winked playfully back at her and typed in her choice with a grand flourish. In return she put on her sweet smile and turned back to the computer screen.

At that moment Darcy sat up straight with a start. "Skyfall! That's the one." She announced triumphantly, to a chorus of "You're joking?" from Natasha and Barnes. At this point Steve reached for the paper in front of him, turning the page unnecessarily violently. Natasha looked at him expectantly while Darcy and Barnes looked enquiringly on. Instead Steve just met Natasha's eyes and glanced at the door. She rolled her eyes but stood up in unison with him.

Once they were outside the room and the door closed behind them Natasha spun to face him.

"You want to say something?" She goaded and Steve breathed slowly in.

"I would just appreciate a little help maintaining order when we're meant to be working." He started simply. "I don't think this is...conducive to our research."

"Okay, I get what you're saying. We're just having some fun. And we're still working. It's just that the computers take a little time to run the codes and we have time to sit and wait." She said, smiling easily.

"Yeah, well, that's fine for you. I just think some people would do better if you weren't so casual and uncaring in there." At this Natasha grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from the glass window of the conference room, where two eager faces could watch everything that was going on. Instead she pulled him to her office next door.

"I'm going to ignore that last one. So this is all still because you can't work with Bucky?"

"I can _work_ with Barnes, I just want him to be taking this seriously. I thought he was but…with you being all friendly, it makes him feel like…"

"Like a human being?" She was being defensive and Steve knew he was treading a fine line.

"Like he can get away with being him. There's something I just don't like about him. And not just because I worked his case, I know what you're thinking."

"Really? Because I'd like to know what you're thinking." She turned from Steve and closed the door of her office. She was sounding angry but at this point Steve was close to something. Perhaps it was explaining to himself what it was that set his nerves on edge.

"Have you even read his file? There's some things in there that do not all add up with what he says."

"Of course I have. You think I suggested him to Fury with no research?"

"You, what? You advocated him?" Steve couldn't ignore the instinctive stab of betrayal he felt in his gut at her revelation.

"Yeah, I did. And do you know why I suggested him? Because I read his file." She argued and Steve felt at a loss. "And so you've read his file and you didn't trust him. Wonderful. Have you tried actually talking to him?"

"So he can lie to my face?" Steve found himself getting more annoyed now that she seemed so eager to defend him.

"No you idiot. First thing you do is check the paper copy. Then when you can you talk to the person himself."

And I have. Remember I was stuck babysitting last night _and_ picking him up today. I had to suffer two car journeys with him."

"Suffer, right. So use your instincts. What was your gut feeling when you actually talked to him alone? Because I haven't got the sense of cold hearted villain."

Steve looked at her. He had hated being assigned to watch duty because it was demeaning and exactly where he had not wanted to be. But somehow his light feeling as he had come into the office today hadn't quite tallied with that. However, Natasha was looking at the sceptical look on his face and she wasn't finished.

"Don't think for one second I'm going to underestimate this guy, Steve Rogers. You think no one's tried to smooth talk their way out of an encounter with me?"

"I realise that."

"And haven't you said you trust my judgement as well as your own."

"You know I do, Nat."

"Then don't try and tell me how to do my job. I've been in this office longer than you have."

"Okay, I overstepped my boundaries. I'm sorry." He didn't look at her, ashamedly staring at the floor.

"Oh don't try and pull the kicked puppy routine on me, Rogers. Just you do your job, I do mine and we keep working like the team we are."

"We're a good team, usually."

"When I'm on your side, we're a fucking awesome team." Natasha snarled at him and gave him a slanted grin when he looked up at her again. He would never understand how he was supposed to follow her rapid flickers of mood. All it meant was that he could never tell if she was acting or not. Suddenly her anger seemed to have dissolved and Steve was still left without answers to questions he didn't exactly know.

"I'm sorry Nat."

"Don't worry about it. Just, will you try and cool it on the hating his guts thing?"

"I'll let you take the lead on that."

"Good. And will you also try actually talking to him instead of stewing in your paperwork?" She remarked and Steve narrowed his eyes at her. She mirrored him and he huffed out his tension.

"I can try, if he's not being an asshole."

"I take it Fury has you on watch…?"

"From now until my dying day." Steve replied drily and Natasha knocked him on the arm playfully.

"Ha, extra time for you to practise those Bucky skills then." She didn't give him time to reply. "So, shall we go see what the kids have been up to while we were gone?" She reached for the door handle behind her back and swung herself around the frame and out.

When Steve got to the door of the conference room, Natasha stood waiting for him expectantly, hand poised on the handle.

"Suck it up, Rogers. We're trying to be professional in here." She gave him a wink and then pulled the door open, leaving Steve no time to reply and only enough time to take in a preparatory breath and follow her into the room. He could do what she said, he had followed her lead on many field missions in the past, just as she had his. He could follow her again in this endeavour.

As he entered the room he felt a shudder of disappointment when he heard the music floating across to him. It wasn't a song he knew but it sounded far too upbeat and party-like for it to aid working. At the same time he registered the music, Barnes looked up at them with a sorrowful expression.

"I'm sorry. She took over the music." He held out his hands despairingly while Darcy continued looking at her computer screen, happily bopping her head to the beat of the music. Natasha groaned but resumed her seat good-naturedly. Steve pretended it was nothing and sank into his seat quietly.

In fact he held onto his calm and inner peace for the next couple of hours or so while the others cheerfully chattered over the music choice while they worked on the computers. After some time Steve began to get used to it, it became a pleasant drone of noise in the background.

"Steve, you with us?" He jerked up from his notes when Natasha's voice attracted his attention. Looking up he saw three other sets of eyes in the room staring at him expectantly and he cleared his throat.

"Erm, yes. What have you got?"

"Well, basically I tried to follow one of the money trails to one of the companies from yesterday."

"You did? Did it get you anything?" Steve was instantly tuned in once he realised that they might be getting somewhere.

"Oh, the usual string of empty accounts forwarding the balance through. But the real kicker is the holder company it was taken by in the end." Darcy looked ridiculously pleased with herself and Steve felt happy for her, if she would just get to the point.

"And that would be?" He looked from Darcy to Natasha's faces searchingly until his partner spoke up.

"Roxxon Corp." She said smugly and Steve did a double take.

"Seriously? Roxxon. The ones we have _never_ got anything on?" Steve processed out loud and Natasha nodded.

"The one and only."

He looked from Natasha to Darcy again, as they both enthusiastically high-fived and Steve felt slightly suspicious that it was his reaction causing at least part of their joy. This was the big name company that was always slinking off just around the corner of any shady deal, rather like Hydra, only it had been on Natasha and Steve's radar for some time longer. While he tried to think through the turn this had taken he knew he had a somewhat stunned expression. This brought the case to a whole new level, in fact a sense of responsibility descended on him when he realised this could be the only chance they got.

And then he remembered to look at the other man in the room, arguably the person who had brought them to this point. Barnes was smiling absently at the shenanigans but he seemed distant, far more focused on his computer. He was typing quickly, a few windows open at once all showing that black screen with green text Steve still didn't know how to feel about. More noticeable than Barnes' determined expression, however, was the fact his face looked much paler than normal.

Without trying to draw attention to the other man, Steve looked back at Natasha and Darcy, who were now copying files and saving them to the system.

"Nat, Fury will want an update on this, asap." He instructed and she nodded, before getting up and turning to Darcy.

"What, you need me as well?" The younger girl said uncertainly, with suddenly wide eyes.

"Well sure, you need to learn to make your own reports at some point." Natasha said and guided her through the door, laptop clutched firmly in hand.

Once they left, Steve turned to Barnes once more. He saw that as soon as the women had left the room, the strained smile had slipped from the hacker's face and he sat hunched at the desk, eyes like a laser beam on the screen in front of him.

"Mission report, soldier?" Steve requested as gently as he could, but the man opposite him still jumped in his seat, clearly having forgotten there was still someone in the room with him. He looked up guiltily and Steve was sure this time that he caught the haunted look that Barnes tried to blink from his eyes. "You okay?"

The ghost of a smirk lifted the corner of Barnes' mouth but the effect was lost when his lips stood out in stark contrast to the rest of his white face. "Look who's concerned." He tried but Steve brushed aside the attempt at a defensive front.

"Do you know something about Roxxon?" Steve pressed and Barnes shook his head in begrudgingly lips tightly sealed. Steve gave him a hard stare.

"No, I don't. It's not a name I heard but there were a lot of names and …not many people talking."

"Your explanations continue to give nothing away. So if it's _really_ not Roxxon," Steve gave Barnes another keen look, suggesting he was not so easily convinced, "Then what is it?" Barnes started to protest but Steve held up his hands. "Just talk to me straight, for once."

Barnes gave a swift double take at Steve before he took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm getting through their security shields and I can tell I'm getting close to the mainframe, there are repeating codings that I recognise. Actually less has changed than I would expect in a couple of years."

"So you're getting in? Isn't this a good thing?" Steve tried to follow.

"Yeah I am. But I'm getting closer, meaning I'm getting more open to them."

"They'll see you?"

"Well, like I said, they'll be able to pick up a virus attack?" Barnes said, then frowned at Steve's slightly amused expression. "That had better not be aimed at me."

"Yeah, sorry. Virus wasn't one I'd thought of applying to you yet."

"Very nice." Barnes scowled at him, and Steve apologetically tried to straighten his face again. Still, Barnes seemed to be regaining colour and looked less stressed with a break in the tension. "As I was saying, I don't want…" He paused again. Frowning again, he appeared to get lost in thought for a moment, then he looked back up, holding Steve's eyes with a piercing glare.

"Tell me, the security detail you've got on me, does it cover my tech at home?" Steve looked confused for a second and Barnes went on more forcefully. "Are you tracking any activity on my computer, my phone, my files here?"

Steve looked at him steadily, eyes still caught by Barnes' almost desperate expression. There was a longing there, some deep underlying urge for Steve to listen to him. The agent nodded slowly. "Tell me what you need."

Barnes breathed out, as if he was expelling a knot of tension through his lungs. He nodded back, before turning to his computer, clicking up a new window and quickly accessing some FBI page. "I don't know if you've got it bugged because you know," he lifted his arm with the bracelet, "Not technically using things like computers. But I need you to check for any activity on my laptops, phone line, all of that. Are you just watching me or my apartment too?" He asked, speaking quicker than he had been so that Steve took a slight pause before he realised the last had been a question.

"Er, just you, as far as I know."

"That's fine, I can link you to my building's CCTV feed too."

"Barnes," Steve butted in while the hacker searched for networks from what he could see, "Barnes, are you sure you're okay."

"I'm covering our backs, Rogers." He spun in his chair to catch Steve's eye again. "I got this far, I do not want them finding me again."

Steve nodded. There was no way he could argue, when at this moment the hacker was beginning to prove himself to be one of their best assets.

* * *

Thanks once again to everyone reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. You get one guess which soundtrack i was listening to as i began it this week


	7. Chapter 7

That afternoon Barnes followed Steve out to his car quietly, although he didn't spare a crooked grin when he climbed into the passenger seat again. Steve rolled his eyes but then stared pointedly until Barnes pulled the seat belt into place.

The car journey was more sedate, Barnes reaching out to flick the radio on after they had pulled onto the road and so Steve didn't push to make conversation. Once they reached the apartment the dark haired man was withdrawn when he turned to Steve with a flick of his head.

"So, you want a comfier seat for your watch again."

Steve was already tempted to say yes but the silent anxiety he saw in the others' eyes, not to mention the change in his exuberant, confident demeanour had Steve feeling more curious and protective than before. "As long as you don't mind me using your table again?"

"You were working?" Barnes asked in surprise as he turned his key in the lock and pushed the door before him.

"Well, I like to put my time to good use." Steve quietly closed the door behind him as he followed the man into his home.

"You gotta learn to enjoy your time off, pal." Barnes chuckled as he turned and condescendingly patted Steve on the shoulder. Steve looked down at his hand, then raised an eyebrow at Barnes with an unimpressed expression.

"I do, when I'm off duty." Steve tried to rebuild his professional boundary but Barnes seemed to shrug it off with a laugh.

"Oh I bet. What is it, one week a year? Do you sunbathe by the pool with your top button done up?" Steve turned to answer back but Barnes was already facing the other way, filling the coffee drawer. Steve shook his head and turned over to the table. The man was truly a mystery he wasn't getting paid enough to decipher when it wasn't getting them anywhere.

He was taking his jacket off and carefully laying it on the chair next to him when Barnes turned around again.

"So how do you take it?" He was holding out a mug and a carton of milk and looked at Steve with an earnestness as if they had been discussing coffee all along. Steve blinked at him for a second before he roughly replied.

"Just milk." He closed his eyes in exasperation as Barnes turned back to the worktop and Steve heard him open the cutlery drawer. "Are you always this hard to follow?" He finally asked after watching the man from behind for a couple of moments, moving easily between his cupboards while the pot sputtered through its brewing task. Barnes turned and cocked his head inquisitively.

"By which you mean?"

"Well, I mean… Okay so you've been quiet and jumpy all afternoon. Now you're…you again." He stumbled out an explanation of his question, having spoken without really considering it.

Barnes leaned back on the bench and lifted an eyebrow. "And at some point you're going to have to tell me what you mean by that." He said with too much glee for Steve's liking, before he realised that the other man had once again easily bypassed the question.

"Barnes, I'm here to work, not play mind tricks and not even to interrogate you. So I won't let you waste my time." He deflected back and was surprised when Barnes said nothing and turned back to the coffee. There was only the sound of the fragrant liquid being poured and the spoon hitting the ceramic of the mug.

Then in a smooth movement Barnes placed a mug in front of Steve while also taking the opposite seat.

"I thought I told you to call me Bucky."

"Barnes…" Steve had heard the tone come out in Barnes' voice again and he was ready to go with the flow, an ability to banter backwards and forwards one he had to learn working from the bottom with any street punk he hauled in on his beat.

"Maybe I had an ulterior motive."

"I expected as much."

"Maybe I just wanted a big, strong FBI man in uniform to come home with me." He said and Steve thought he managed to cover his surprise quite well as he responded quickly.

"I thought Natasha would be more your agent type, if she weren't way too much for you to handle." This time Barnes looked impressed at his response time and chuckled, shaking his head.

"Maybe I don't like fitting into everyone's boxes." He said with an eyebrow raised tellingly. "You shouldn't go assuming everyone's the same as you." Steve took far too much joy in realising he had the upper hand and spoke without caution.

"And maybe they are." He mentally congratulated himself when Barnes looked taken aback and then both eyebrows were raised assessingly.

"Wait, are you…?" He clearly hadn't been expecting that.

"Bi. Nat kept trying to set me up on dates after a while with all the girls until the first short fling I had was the guy on the floor below." He grinned slyly at Barnes, who looked at him and then laughed, a genuine head thrown back laugh that meant Steve couldn't help but join in.

"Not really what happened to me. I just at some point decided that it was not something that I was ever going to tell anyone, growing up in the neighbourhood I was from." Barnes said, showing a rare moment of honesty that immediately had Steve sympathising. He knew that story too.

"The Bronx, right?"

There was a moment where Barnes' eyes flew up to meet Steve's face but the man's expression didn't change at all and Steve wasn't sure if it held any meaning or not, when Barnes easily answered, "Yeah, the Bronx."

All the same, they sat in an unusually preoccupied quiet at Steve shuffled his papers some more and found the last page of notes he had been working on.

Their strange confessional had been unintentional, perhaps on both sides.

"And look who's talking about being hard to follow." Barnes sat back and smirked, causing Steve to look up at him sharply, taken aback. "Why, it's almost like we have something in common." He was prying again and Steve didn't feel like letting him lead the conversation this time. "So what are you even doing here? The work's back at the office."

"Maybe for someone with their computer privileges revoked." Steve said calmly and when Barnes looked at him sharply he gave him a smug grin.

"Nice, very professional."

"Oh, so now you want to be professional?" Steve commented snidely.

"I prefer not to be attacked in my own house. You hit a very sensitive subject." The pout on his face removed any actual offense in his words and Steve laughed. "Which you clearly find amusing."

"Perhaps."

"Taunting of a witness. I could have you charged for that." Barnes continued on while Steve determinedly looked through his bag for a pen. Once he found one, he turned an unimpressed look at Barnes who quirked his mouth up into a grin.

"As if babysitting isn't punishment enough."

"Alright," Barnes protested good naturedly, "You've made your point. You can get on with your stuff." He picked up his coffee and took a drink, watching over the top of the mug as Steve began to make his synthesis of the advancements of the investigation from that day. Steve endured for about two minutes before he looked up at Barnes who was staring at the upside down sheet in front of him.

"You gotta problem?" He finally asked when Barnes had glanced up to meet his eyes.

"Do you really need to retake all your notes?"

"It's called making a report."

"It's called making work for yourself."

"Barnes…"

"Bucky."

"If you have nothing better to do than distract me, I can leave this until later."

"Excellent."

"…And go wait outside like I'm meant to be doing." He put his pen down and looked at Barnes, who sighed dramatically.

"Well if you're going to be oh so busy, would it disturb you too much if I stayed in here? You see, my room is only entertaining for so long."

"Sure." Steve said, trying to ignore his growing irritation. "It's your apartment. Do what you like."

"I thought I was." Barnes commented quietly but before Steve relied he had already stood up and was taking his mug to the sink.

The evening continued more quietly, the initial amusement seemed to have given way to exasperation as Steve was reminded how much the man's overconfidence tested his patience. Barnes made his way around the kitchen to prepare a dinner and then sat on his small couch to eat in front of the television. He had it on quietly but from the glimpses and snatches of sound Steve paid attention to, it was some kind of crime drama show he didn't recognise.

Finally, when it was nearly 11 o clock Steve stood up. He had mostly finished and gather his things together some time earlier but had stayed at the table, glancing through the notes he'd made, making a checklist for himself tomorrow, and when even that had been done he had turned to sketching in his notebook, a favourite pastime that he only did on the rare occasions he had spare time.

He glanced over at Barnes, who had turned away from the film on TV and was glancing at the clock.

"The next guard here?" He asked and Steve shook his head.

"Unlikely, but I should be…" He pointed at the door as he trailed off. It felt very strange to be bending the rules, even in a small way like this.

"Right, well, will you be my escort in the morning again?" He didn't quite sound teasing, his tone slightly too flat to be making a joke.

"I guess."

"Then I'll see you."

"Yeah, see you." Steve replied and when he realised that was all that needed saying, he turned and left the apartment.

The next day saw them in the conference room again but this time, it was Barnes who had something to give them.

"See, part of Hydra's work was ripping off smaller companies, and sometimes not so small companies, to get money from them. Sometimes they didn't so much steal from the companies as, crush them to dust and feed off their constituent parts." Bucky was trying to explain the significance of what he'd found.

"Ooh, like in Pretty Woman?" Darcy said enthusiastically, then shrugged unrepentantly at the blank stares she got from the other people in the room. "Y'all are just uncultured."

"Anyway," Barnes cocked a teasing grin at her, "This list, is so far, all the companies I've recovered that Hydra had contact with and, if you give me some more time to work my magic, I'm pretty sure I can get into the old files to read the correspondences."

"So these are what, pay records?" Natasha asked.

"Exactly, it's where they got their funding from and completely illegal."

"Well, it wasn't illegal in the film." Darcy protested.

"Yeah, and Richard Gere wasn't quite doing it the way Hydra were." Barnes replied and Darcy gave him a look like he had just revealed a huge secret. Steve cut her off when she was clearly about to say something else.

"But it's still not telling us what they were using the money for." He clarified and Barnes gave him a steady look.

"I'm working on it."

"Alright fine. Just checking."

"So print off the list." Natasha cut them off, "We'll split it and see what we can find on the companies; when they went down, the estimated value of the company at the time. Everything is evidence and if we know what kind of money they were taking in it can only help."

They followed her instructions, Steve soon found himself with a page of company names and a computer database to check facts with. He began scanning down the list, a couple seemed familiar, some seemed downright bizarre and others were completely innocuous looking.

He typed the first company name into the database and started searching the results. After a short while he found it made quite satisfactory work. He could write up a short summary of the company: founders, when it started and when it closed down, net worth and a couple of other interesting facts he might find along the way.

The first company were Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg and Holliway, a law firm of all things. In searching for the date that they went out of business, little more than 3 years ago, he found references to some of their cases. The first was a case where they had defended a man almost certainly guilty of murder and he had been released without charge. Another had been a husband and wife duo of bank robbers, both high profile cases that had drawn enough media attention that Steve could remember seeing them on the news.

It appeared they would unscrupulously defend anyone with pay checks big enough and so had had an enviable bank balance when they had suddenly closed up and disappeared. Steve couldn't help but think that the world was a better place without their law firm, now that he typed up their estimated net worth with a number of angry taps at the 0 button.

He had completed a profile on another 4 companies when he saw a name he definitely recognised. CrossTech Enterprises. He looked over at his partner, "Hey Nat, haven't you heard of this one?" He pointed it out and she frowned, thinking before nodding slowly.

"Yeah, they just made a huge donation to the city to create a new building for the homeless." She said, sounding as mystified as he felt.

"That wasn't that long ago. Most of these companies I've done all closed down a few years ago." He said

"Mine too. Keep looking into it." She urged him unnecessarily, as he was already turning to search the FBI database for the company.

He found it, Cross Technological Enterprises, est. 2003 – present. Steve frowned and tried the search again, clicking on a different result. He saw both Darcy and Barnes had turned to listen in when he had spoken to Natasha, but had since gone back to their computers. This time the link was to the headline from 6 months ago, when the corporation had paid a hefty $250,000 to a charity in order to let them fix up an old building to convert into temporary shelters for those living on the streets. Steve whistled gently at the kindness of the gesture.

There were other mentions of the company being good Samaritans before this, sometimes donating small amount to charity or sponsoring an event but nothing on the same scale up until recently. After searching a few similar links Steve came to the conclusion the company was still thriving and as far as he could find, had never been put out of business before that.

Quietly he added this to his notes, making a new column on a whim in case he found other companies that matched CrossTech in any way. He continued onto the next company.

By the time he was halfway down the list he was actively checking the company profiles for more information on their cases or external activities. He had definitely started to notice a trend. A few of the companies that had disappeared at around the same time as all the others were notable for decidedly sketchy projects. One had funded nuclear weapons and backed weapons manufacturers. Another, on a separate case kept in the FBI files had been happily selling weaponry to both sides of the war in Afghanistan. A third had not done anything similar to that but Steve also discovered with some research that the founder was strongly and loudly Republican. He wasn't sure if that counted as crooked dealings but he noted it anyway.

Just a couple more on the list he had found to still be running. These had shared a noticeable trait in that they were both involved in an initiative to give people a second chance. What this came down to was they had agreed to hire felons and recovering addicts, if they were the best people for the job.

Amidst all these files on Hydra, highlighting shifty dealings and morals, and literally tearing apart smaller companies for funds, Steve was mystified to find such a targeting process. It was very clearly finding reasons to remove companies or allow them to be passed over. Rubbing his eyes in contemplation, he pushed his chair from the desk ad stood up.

"I'm going to go get a coffee, anyone want anything?" He asked the room in general, only to see Natasha stand up with him.

"I need to stretch my legs." She sounded as drowsy as he felt and he smiled at her understandingly. They walked out to the break room on the other side of their floor and while he set the machine off to brew – as usual someone had emptied it and not refilled – she leaned across and rested her head on his shoulder wearily.

"So many files," She complained and Steve chuckled.

"Today really seems to be dragging on, huh?"

"Entertain me." She muttered into his shoulder. "How did your evening go with Bucky? Did you talk?" She caught Steve by surprise with the sudden change, then he began to suspect that might have been the plan all along.

"That's your entertainment?"

"Yep. Don't dodge the question."

"He's exactly what I said he was. Arrogant and pushy and frustrating and…" He said quickly, all the words coming out of him without thinking too hard about it.

"And…?"

"And hiding something."

"And…"

"And what?" Steve cried, feeling provoked but when he looked at Natasha and saw she wasn't going to speak until he had he stopped and thought about what he wanted to say. "And…something about him is easy to talk to."

Natasha continued to watch him silently and he groaned out loud. "What, it's what you wanted right? He just comes across well but I know I can't trust him."

"You know that? You have always trusted your gut on people before."

"Yeah and there was that one time,"

"No, Steve. And your coffee's done." He looked down and saw it had stopped dripping water, so he began to grab a mug. When he turned around Natasha wasn't with him anymore.

He made his way back to the conference room alone and re-entered to find both Natasha and Darcy missing. He took his chair again, and checked that his computer hadn't shut itself down. Then he looked up at Barnes, who was staring intently at his screen.

"So Barnes, there's one thing I still don't get." He said, trying to think how best to phrase his question. He also gathered from his experience and Natasha's comments, that he was more likely to get a straight answer from the Winter Soldier if they were alone. Therefore he had to think fast. "You haven't told us exactly what your part in all of this was."

"My part in what, Hydra?"

"Well, more specifically, in this, the company liquidation." He tapped the papers in front of him. Barnes looked at him scanning his face for something, and Steve tried to keep it clear and innocent. He thought this plan of actually asking the man, something Natasha had been so keen on him doing, would only work if Barnes didn't know he might be onto him.

Clearly satisfied with what he saw, Barnes looked back down at his keyboard. "Well, I was the computer expert so I helped to locate vulnerable companies and then, well, you won't like it." He trailed away, not looking up at Steve.

"I asked, it's all part of the case that we know as much as we can, and right now you're not sharing everything are you?" He felt like his original question had already been answered, however now he wanted to know what the hacker might tell him.

"I want you to, I didn't… I would find weak points that Hydra could use to essentially make them pay up." He finally said, quietly with his fingers placed almost reassuringly on the keyboard in front of him.

"So you bribed them?" Steve tried his best to keep a neutral tone and avoid sounding judgemental but Barnes looked up at him nevertheless, looking hurt.

"Yeah, mostly." He said after a pause and looking away again, this time studying the floor. Steve tried to think of something to say that might lighten the mood, feeling guilty that he had cast a pall on the other man's shoulders. He could think of nothing and almost breathed a sigh of relief when Natasha and Darcy came back into the room, chatting happily about something someone had just said.

Steve turned back to the miniature profiles he had made earlier of the few companies he had researched. Yes, there was definitely a theme in which ones had been targeted and which ones had been left alone to carry on, probably unaware they were ever at risk. He shook his head in vague disbelief. Sometimes people were more transparent than they thought, and he was realising, sometimes that made them even harder to read.

Later, when he had made it through much more of his list, he looked up at the clock on the wall and realised almost a whole hour and a half had passed since his coffee break. He gathered all his things together and put the files he wanted with him into his bag before standing up to shrug back into his jacket.

"So, you almost ready to go home, Bucky?" He spoke to the man sat across from him. Barnes looked up in surprise and then blinked slowly, his face managing to look pleased while still maintaining his shock at the nickname.

"Sure am, Agent."

* * *

Thank you again to readers and new followers, you keep me inspired. This chapter somehow grew a little longer than the last ones, i hope you don't mind :P  
All reviews are appreciated, as always


	8. Chapter 8

The journey back in the car passed quickly, the conversation drifting in and out as they discussed the tail end of the news headlines and the songs that played on the radio. At the top of the stairs Steve paused briefly at the door after Barnes had walked in but the other man simply turned around and gave him a bemused look over his shoulder before leaving the door open behind him. Steve sighed and wiped his feet on the mat before following him inside.

He carefully hung his suit jacket on a hook he had only just noticed on the wall and then went to take his almost customary seat at the table. In the meantime he heard the usual click from the kitchen area as Barnes clicked the coffee drawer into place and set it to brew. Steve chuckled as he saw Barnes collect two mugs from the cupboard without asking. At the sound Barnes turned around to see Steve still smiling and staring pointedly at the mugs in question.

"You know, having someone else here means I don't have to down a whole pot of coffee by myself every evening."

"Oh, so I'm here as a remedy to your coffee addiction?"

"Yup, you're my caffeine patch." Barnes nodded decisively and fetched the milk.

Steve said nothing, only shaking his head exasperatedly as he pulled his briefcase up onto the table. He opened it and selected his pen and papers from the top, where they had been prepared for easy access as he had been leaving the office. However he didn't miss the way Barnes turned to look at him, saying nothing but watching as Steve set out his work space once again. When Steve actually looked up at him, the darker haired man had turned away and was back to staring fixatedly at the coffee maker, as if he could glare the contraption into delivering his caffeine faster.

In a moment he had taken the seat opposite Steve again and placed the second mug on top of the notes Steve was trying to read. Steve tutted and moved it carefully to the top corner of his desk space, not looking at Barnes. He thought that maybe if he reacted he was only encouraging the man, to let it go unrewarded then maybe Barnes would leave him alone to work.

"So that's how it's going to be?" Barnes said challengingly. Steve glanced up calmly to see the other man with his eyebrow raised archly but a smirk pulling at his mouth. Steve was frustrated with himself when he started to smile in return, instead turning back to his work without comment. Barnes huffed loudly and picked up Steve's spare pen, tapping it between the side of his coffee mug and the table. After a few moments of this, Steve couldn't help it. He reached out, without averting his gaze from the page, grabbed at the pen and carefully extracted it from Barnes' grasp. Once he had put it back in its place he looked up at the man sat opposite, this time with a equally challenging look set on his face. Barnes simply grinned back.

"Do you seriously think you're just going to sit here and work all night, again?"

"Well, yes. That is what I'm being paid for." Steve returned with a straight face and was gratified when Barnes gawped.

"You're getting paid for this?" He complained. "Damn, I gotta start charging for my coffee."

"Yes, I am, and no, you won't. Which is why I should use my time to work." He shuffled his papers to turn the page.

"But you're not being paid to work on that."

"Just because I have a work ethic doesn't mean you can put me off it. We are actually making big advances on this case for the first time in weeks and yes, that's thanks to you." He nodded acceptingly in Bucky's direction and was slightly thrown by the serious expression he saw in return. It cleared quickly and then he tilted his head to one side and the cocky smile was back.

"I have a work ethic, it's called being paid to sit and do as little work for it as possible. Go on, give t a try."

"Barnes, I'm serious." He reached into his bag again and retrieved his laptop, which he was in the process of opening when suddenly Barnes' hand was on the back of it, gently but firmly preventing Steve from lifting the top. Steve glared over the top of it at him, ready to actually get annoyed but he met a serious look in Barnes's eyes and frowned in query. In reply Barnes simply lifted his arm and pointed at the black plastic around his wrist, looking like he had just pulled the trump card.

"No can do, Agent." He began to smirk and while Steve was frustrated, he had to admit Barnes had played his hand well.

"Nicely done." He growled light-heartedly and closed the laptop lid down again. Barnes simply smirked. "Well, I'll just have to make notes and see how much I can get done before I get home."

"Nuh-uh. Tonight, you're taking the evening off." Barnes said surprisingly resolutely, putting his hand on Steve's notes and deftly pulling them away. When Steve opened his mouth to argue, Barnes put up a hand with an offhanded shrug, "Until you leave, I guess. But in my house, my rules."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how this goes." Steve muttered but Barnes was already standing up, taking Steve's notes with him. He wandered over to the kitchen and with a sigh Steve pulled himself from his seat.

"Give it a try, you might enjoy it." He chanted and grinned at Steve as he turned, temptingly placing the notes on the kitchen worktop next to him. Without thinking Steve walked straight up to him and out his hand out on the notes, bringing himself close into Barnes' space as he stared him straight in the eyes, shoulders squared imposingly. Bucky tilted his head back as Steve drew close, jutting his chin out and holding the stare, eyes flashing with a challenge. Steve slowly slid the papers from the counter before he stepped back. However as he stepped away again he smiled, turning so Bucky wouldn't see it but as he reached the table again he flicked open his briefcase and tucked the papers neatly inside. When he had closed the case he spun to see the dark haired man still in the same place, watching Steve with a pleased and surprised look in his eyes. While he didn't know exactly what the man was thinking, the blond man still felt like he empathised with the reaction at that moment in time. Maybe just this once he could go relax and go with the flow.

"So, if can't do the research I need to with you here, what do you suggest."

"Who'da thought you'd be so easily corrupted?"

"Wouldn't you like to try." Steve huffed quietly and saw Barnes' eyes light up with a quick smirk.

"So what are you thinking for dinner?" Bucky relaxed against the counter top he had still been standing straight up against and in the short movement Steve felt the shift as if he had just tuned in to a different conversation. He didn't exactly know what it had been before.

"Erm, I don't really know? I usually grab something on my way home."

"Yeah, I figured that much." Bucky said with a glance towards Steve's briefcase on the table. Steve wanted to retort but realised he didn't really have one. "Which is why the first trick to relaxing, is to take time over your meal." The other man continued, as if he hadn't just made a calculated jab at Steve's lifestyle.

"I don't need to be taught how to relax." Steve complained and Bucky scoffed obviously before sighing dramatically.

"Oh, Rogers. Yes, yes you do." He pulled a mock pitying expression and shook his head, meanwhile he walked to Steve's side and gently guided him back towards the small fridge. Steve allowed himself to be steered and reached for the fridge door. Bucky then calmly reached in and started grabbing ingredients, piling them into Steve's arms without a second thought.

"You have an… interesting selection." Steve said, proud of his self-restraint. The shelves contained a range of ingredients, certainly more than Steve would have in his own house at any time. Before Bucky was done, Steve went to put what was in his arms on the bench. "What even is this?" He held up a bundle of elongated green vegetables, about as long as his palm.

Bucky looked up from his scouring of the ingredients and focused on the item in Steve's hand. "Erm, okra, I was told. Thought I'd give it a shot."

"You were told?"

"Yeah, I asked the guy at the store." Bucky shrugged and after grabbing a last addition to his horde – a tin of sweetcorn, he came over to deposit his finds next to Steve's pile. "He said it was good."

"So you have no idea?"

"Nope, fun isn't it?" Steve deadpanned a glare at the other man before turning back to the food on the bench in front of them.

"If you say so. So what is your plan here?" he asked, fully expecting the answer he received.

"No plan. Let's make some food."

Despite his scathing comments on Bucky's method of cooking, Steve very quickly found himself enjoying it. Bucky was totally at ease, messing about with the ingredients, guessing when he didn't know how exactly to cook the mysterious okra, and Steve found the enthusiasm more than a little infectious. The cross between a stir fry and sauce they made was creating some enticing smells, especially once Steve found the cupboard of spices and experimentally added a couple, until they both admitted to looking forward to trying it.

"Okay, whoever your grocery guy is, I'm giving him a little more credit." Steve said once they sat down at the table with plates in front of them. Bucky, since he had been putting the pan in the sink took longer to sit down and so immediately gave it a go. He grinned up at Steve with a laugh at the other's impressed expression.

"See, I have some good ideas." He remarked and Steve grimaced jokingly

"Some." Bucky pulled a face in return but said nothing as they fell into companionable silence, enjoying their new culinary discovery.

Their evening passed in much the same way. After eating, and helping t clean up, Steve tried to return to the desk but Bucky sat opposite him once again and kept him talking so that it was impossible to get any work done. While Steve remained suspicious of his determined attempts to keep him otherwise occupied, he decided to let it go, if just for this night. The atmosphere was too easy compared to their previous nights of butting heads for hours at a time.

As had become custom, Steve checked the clock at half ten, taking time to pack up his things and collect his jacket before quietly letting himself out the door. With due promptness, his replacement walked up the stairs five minutes before the shift was due to start. Out of hard ingrained manners, Steve stuck around to make polite conversation for 5 minutes before he said his farewells and returned to his own apartment.

Driving back to his apartment meant he easily missed the rush hour traffic, though with the hours he was accustomed to keeping that wasn't too unusual. Instead he found the sights of Brooklyn a welcoming sight and the short 15 minute journey passed easily. When he stepped back into his flat he felt ready to relax, following his normal routine he headed to his desk at the side of the room and pulled the files and laptop bag from his briefcase.

Ten minutes later he found he had achieved nothing more than opening the document he had been working on. He huffed a sigh and stood up to make a coffee for himself. He flicked on the coffee pot and chuckled when he recalled the conversation from earlier.

"Why not just get a smaller coffeepot, Barnes?" He spoke to himself as he filled the 5-cup machine he had bought himself purely because it was on sale. "Said the pot to the kettle."

After wandering around his apartment, waiting for the percolator to do its job. He put away the sweater he had left on the sofa the night before, and ran the water to clean his dishes from that morning. Finally, he sat back down in front of the laptop with his coffee in hand, then told himself to work.

Within another half an hour he had managed to research one more company on the list, hindered by his limited access to the FBI files outside of the office. Instead he was staring at his small collection of pictures on the wall, lingering on the single photo of his mother he kept on the desk.

Maybe he did need more decoration in his home, it felt as much like his office as anywhere else and it was only since he had come from Bucky's apartment that he realised this. Still, the hacker had even less of a personal touch in his house than Steve did but coming back to his own apartment left him feeling strangely less relaxed than it usually would. He shook his head to clear it of his musings. Maybe it was purely the effect of being in a different place - he had to admit that between working late at the office and his poor lack of a social life, he didn't usually see much more than his own house after leaving work.

He forced himself to turn back to the laptop and after realising that the security access to the FBI database meant he could only do half the research possible on the list, he turned off the laptop and decided to try and focus on his report of the days progress.

A restlessness he was unused to struck him again when he realised that it was too silent in his small kitchen-living room. With a great effort he turned his mind to his work and wrote a brief - too brief - synthesis of what the team had achieved. With another look around his dim, quiet apartment he looked at one of his more recent photos on the wall from the past Christmas party, one that Nat had insisted he put up because it was 'adorable'. A grin reached his face at his memory of the indomitable redhead as she had found the blue-tac and put the picture on the wall herself. He saw it was only quarter to 12 as he reached for his phone. Natasha would almost certainly be awake if he just wanted to have a chat.

In the office the next day, Steve got straight to continuing scanning the information on the listed companies, a determined effort to assuage his guilt from the unproductive evening. He had even left his apartment half an hour early that morning, tearing into the queue of traffic before he realised, just after pulling into the wrong lane, that he needed to take a detour from his usual route to pick up the hacker. Of course Bucky had stepped out of his front door at exactly the usual time, ignorant of the fact Steve had just spent the last ten minutes fuming silently in his car at the delay and at Nick for making him work this ridiculous duty.

The work continued on, and while he was happy to be making progress again in a case that seemed to have stagnated for long enough, the trend he was facing in the data was frustrating him and he couldn't exactly explain to anyone why. The more companies he profiled, the better he got at noticing the trend or the one loophole in their policies.

Technet had been called into court cases more than once by dissatisfied customers but never been convicted due to the fairly conspicuous 'lack of evidence' while Harriers Inc had a particularly generous health insurance policy for their workers, despite offering fairly standard office jobs within an accountancy firm. Sure enough the former had fallen off the grid around 3 years ago while the latter corporation was still going. Steve grew more and more certain of his colleagues part in the scheme of picking worthy targets for whatever scheme it was exactly that Hydra pulled.

Taking a break he wandered over to Natasha's side of the table and looked over her shoulder, she was still completeing her part of the list and making a similar profile to the ones he had been typing up. He looked at the next name on her list.

"So, Cabal Corps. Have they been naughty or nice?" He asked, testing her reaction. Unsurprisingly she looked up at him and grinned crookedly.

"So you're getting the same thing? Just three or four have been passed over on mine."

"Yep, I find the best trick is to first find whether they're still afloat or not." Steve offered and found Natasha was already nodding.

"And then work from there to find the loophole."

"Yeah. It's strange." He said, trailing off as he had a quick look over the other notes she had made. He looked back at her to see her staring at him with a strange expression. He frowned questioningly in response.

"So you're okay?" She asked finally.

"Okay? I'm fine…" He shrugged her off, despite the fact he immediately knew from her change in tone what she was referring to.

"Well, I can't actually remember the last time you called me just to talk."

"And that's exactly what I was thinking. I just felt like…maybe a chat with someone would…"

"Right." She nodded and huffed a short laugh. "Spending your evening outside in a corridor getting you down?"

At this Steve looked back at her blankly for just a second as his brain processed why that statement was wrong. That was how he was supposed to be completing guard duty. He couldn't help making a quick glance across the table at Barnes, who he noted was already looking up at them and immediately flashed a grin when he made eye contact. Steve turned his attention back to Natasha and nodded, putting a hand up to rub wearily at his eye.

"Yeah, I guess that was probably it." He shook his head and smiled at his partner, but she was gving him a steadily evaluating look in return. He tilted his head innocently but she wasn't put off, after a few seconds she seemed to relax and looked back at her computer screen and Steve was no wiser as to what had gone through her mind. He also found himself resisting the urge to look back over at the man on the other side of the table, who he knew had continued to watch the whole exchange and might be able to give more insight. Instead it was Natasha who looked over at the dark haired man.

"Do you have any ideas to share on this?" She asked and Steve stifled a smile when the same deer caught in the headlights look that he had fought to hide on his face was also apparent in the other man's expression.

"…About... him calling you?" Barnes asked slowly in a bewildered tone.

"I was meaning the company profiles and Hydra targeting system, but whatever you're willing to share." Natasha drawled but when Steve glanced quickly at her expression, he saw the self-satisfied smirk she got when she thought she had figured something out.

"Oh right." Steve was impressed at the speed the confusion fell from the other man's face and instead his usual air of arrogance returned. "Nah, looks like you've worked out as much as I know on your own already." He smiled sweetly at Natasha and she mockingly raised her eyebrows at him.

"You know you're a terrible liar for a convicted criminal." She threw at him and he merely leaned back in his chair.

"Maybe I'm just looking for the right interrogation method, darling." He said suggestively and Steve steeled himself for Natasha's reaction, as he had seen demonstrated before in the interrogation room when men tended to show the lowest, more misogynistic side of themselves. Instead he was momentarily surprised by Natasha's laugh, before he realised that they weren't in the interrogation room and they were just colleagues messing around in the office. It was a pleasant relief to Steve and he relaxed into the casual noise, stepping back to his seat and the document he had been working on.

"There was supposed to be some work going on here too, at some point." He muttered authoritatively when he had resumed his seat, looking the image of proper professionalism. It took mere moments for the other two to exchange a look and then he felt the room turn on him as they included him in their game.

"Agent Rogers, you really must teach me your work ethic." Barnes said to him with a straight face and a convincingly innocent look in his eyes.

"You have no comment to make on this." Steve said with a hand raised warningly but a smile on his face, to show he was playing along.

"Steve, we're creating an amiable workspace atmosphere." Natasha said just as innocently as Barnes. "It's a new fad, all the rage in team building seminars."

"I'm not sure I approve. Far too new-fangled for me." He sighed dramatically, waving a hand at them both dismissively while they cackled at his reaction. "Besides, I'm not sure I like the way you two get along. There's something far too unsettling about it."

"I agree." Barnes said authoritatively.

"There's a phrase I didn't want to hear from you." Steve remarked drily and was ignored.

"None of this fraternising with the enemy malarkey. I mean, you're the Feds." Barnes continued on and Natasha nodded solemnly.

"From now on, totally serious work." She added.

"None of this silly getting along." Barnes continued.

"Oh, if only." Steve commented in a pleading tone to the room at large.

"By the way, Agent-man, we need to go shopping before we get home." Barnes said. "I'm almost out of coffee."

"How will you manage?"

* * *

Thank you once again for your patience and sorry that with 's system i can't update you without reposting the chapter, but i had an essay due i that took up all my time for the past 2 weeks. I should be able to get the next one out on time but after that i may be heading into deadline season.

Thank you for reading and thank you for your reviews, they mean a lot, especially when you are lovely when i am being disappointing and not updating at my usual time


End file.
